[UPDATE] Man gets cyber crime charges for spamming twitch channels

[ItsMitch]

1 minute ago, matrix07012 said:

That's a bad thing

How is Twitch policing their site a bad thing? Enlighten me. 

[Streetguru]

15 minutes ago, xtroria said:

Good. People need to learn they have the freedom to speak anything, IRL and on the web but they’re not free from the responsibility and consequences of the speech

The government should never restrict speech that isn't direct threats or incitement to violence or panic.Online nor Offline. It's pretty simple really. Don't want to end up like some other countries.

[matrix07012]

1 minute ago, SC2Mitch said:

How is Twitch policing their site a bad thing? Enlighten me. 

Your post suggested that Twitch should start policing speech.

[ItsMitch]

2 minutes ago, matrix07012 said:

Your post suggested that Twitch should start policing speech.

They should, especially when it comes to child pornography and stupid spam that contributes nothing towards a positive discussion apart from "oh xdd this guy posting memes xDDDDDD" which is clearly outlined in the Twitch guidelines. 

[Streetguru]

10 minutes ago, SC2Mitch said:

They should, especially when it comes to child pornography and stupid spam that contributes nothing towards a positive discussion apart from "oh xdd this guy posting memes xDDDDDD" which is clearly outlined in the Twitch guidelines. 

There's nothing wrong with stopping illegal content from being posted, or stopping bots from spamming chats, Doesn't matter if a channel itself restricts certain words, the issue is governments arresting people for saying things they don't like.

[matrix07012]

17 minutes ago, SC2Mitch said:

They should, especially when it comes to child pornography and stupid spam that contributes nothing towards a positive discussion apart from "oh xdd this guy posting memes xDDDDDD" which is clearly outlined in the Twitch guidelines. 

Yeah, definitely. Linking illegal content like cp and using bots to spam chat should be policed more.

[xtroria]

3 hours ago, Streetguru said:

The government should never restrict speech that isn't direct threats or incitement to violence or panic.Online nor Offline. It's pretty simple really. Don't want to end up like some other countries.

And from what I see, they dont restrict. People still have freedom to go to public parks or even public universities and promote political view or religious view because there’s first amendment.

 

But spamming in twitch is basically the same thing as vandalism

 

[RagnarokDel]

4 hours ago, Streetguru said:

There's nothing wrong with stopping illegal content from being posted, or stopping bots from spamming chats, Doesn't matter if a channel itself restricts certain words, the issue is governments arresting people for saying things they don't like.

He wasnt arrested for  what he said but for the method he used... If all he had said was:  Hello! nobody would bat an eye but when you start linking child pornography and shit like that, that's when shit hits the fan.

[RagnarokDel]

5 hours ago, AresKrieger said:

There is no difference unless it can be taken as a threat (in the US, this is a canadian court so idk though it would mean free speech is significantly weaker there, unsurprisingly)

It depends of context but it does matter. For example, a few years ago, an iman in montreal was calling for the death of jews and he got in trouble because as an iman, he was a person of authority.

[Ertman]

6 hours ago, AresKrieger said:

If they are charging him for making a bot to interfere with a site, fine whatever, but if they are charging him with something due to what he said then I take issue. Free speech does not mean only speech that anyone in particular agrees with, it simply means you cannot be charged for what you say (minus some key exceptions that relate to causing harm (yelling bomb in a crowded store for example) or threatening)

 

6 hours ago, Canada EH said:

I agree with that. Free speach is a fundamental right in Canada. Whether its hate speach or hippie love everyone speach.

Free Speech, or as it is known in Canada, Freedom of Expression is not an absolute right here as it is considered in the USA.

 

Consider Section 1 of the Canadian constitution.

 

This doesn’t include the sections referring to hate speech in the Criminal Code

[Ertman]

5 hours ago, Streetguru said:

The government should never restrict speech that isn't direct threats or incitement to violence or panic.Online nor Offline. It's pretty simple really. Don't want to end up like some other countries.

In Canada freedom of expression (free speech) is not absolute, and this written in our constitution.

[Trik'Stari]

7 hours ago, Streetguru said:

Bad idea to let governments set precedence over controlling speech.

I agree.

 

But yeah this guy needs to go to jail. It's one thing to be a dickhead on the internet (I should know) but doing it on a massive scale is crossing a line.

 

As is disseminating what I'm guessing was child porn?

 

1 hour ago, RagnarokDel said:

It depends of context but it does matter. For example, a few years ago, an iman in montreal was calling for the death of jews and he got in trouble because as an iman, he was a person of authority.

There are Imam's in the US doing that and no one is arresting them. Despite it being a clear incitement to violence.

[RagnarokDel]

3 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

There are Imam's in the US doing that and no one is arresting them. Despite it being a clear incitement to violence.

That's stupid. To be fair the imam wasnt arrested he was fined if I remember well

[Trik'Stari]

Just now, RagnarokDel said:

That's stupid. To be fair the imam wasnt arrested he was fined if I remember well

It's been more than one.

[Cookybiscuit]

He's being charged due to using bots to cause disruption, the racism part plays no part in the charges, it's just a spin put on it by the news outlet.

[goodtofufriday]

10 years?!?! Child molesters that torture kids for damn near their whole adolescent life get less time than that. 

What the actual hellis going on when spamming a chat box gets you more jail time

[MrDynamicMan]

17 hours ago, Streetguru said:

Bad idea to let governments set precedence over controlling speech.

Too late in Canada. Their free speech laws and limits on hate speech are utterly draconian. 

[Jon4248]

This story reminds me of Microsoft's Tay AI Twitter bot that became a racist

[Bananasplit_00]

huh, neat?

[Starelementpoke]

$5 says he tries to argue freedom of speech.

[AnonymousGuy]

It's Canada so they don't have a bill of rights.  In the US nothing would happen because it's protected speech.

[Thony]

I hope twitch doesnt remove “TriHard” emote because of this. 

[Commodus]

46 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

It's Canada so they don't have a bill of rights.  In the US nothing would happen because it's protected speech.

Actually, they do.

 

The difference is in how the US and Canada treat free speech, both in law and in spirit.  Both countries have a certain baseline (the government can't censor speech merely because it disagrees, for instance), but the US has a much more absolutist approach where it's more likely to default to allowing speech in grey areas.

 

For example, hate speech.  The typical American position is to allow hate speech as long as the person isn't directly threatening others (you can state neo-Nazi views, for instance, but you can't threaten to destroy a mosque).  There's also a much larger culture of people who will insist that anything they say is protected by free speech, whether or not it is.  See: the people who think that a private company removing content that violates its policies is somehow censorship.

 

In Canada, it's different: it's considered illegal hate speech to demonize an entire cultural group in a way that could incite action.  The country has taken down at least some white supremacist sites because their goal was clearly to stoke racist hatred and fuel harassment or violence, even though they weren't explicitly issuing those commands.  And in general, Canadians don't get so uppity about free speech.  They value it, but they don't practice that anything-and-everything-is-legal zealotry to nearly the same degree as in the US.

 

As it stands, I don't think this plays too much into this Twitch decision.  It's really about crossing the line from being a jerk to causing serious problems for streamers and Twitch as a whole.

[DanielMDA]

19 hours ago, SC2Mitch said:

Story coming in from CBC and Kotaku and it's pretty fucking ridiculous

The guy who made the spambot with all the racist shit can just fuck off really, kinda sad that he went this far and the law had to be involved. The legal proceedings have just begun and he hasn't put in a plea as of yet. Twitch declined to comment on the matter, along with the defendant. I mean, can we just be better people for once? 

I fucking hate racists. Asshole deserves it.

[AshleyAshes]

18 hours ago, PocketNerd said:

Fun Fact: the BC Supreme Court is a PROVINCIAL Court. Not Federal.

Funner Fact: It's really neither.  Since Canada's criminal code exists at the federal level and can by changed by the federal government, all violations of law in Canada are 'federal charges'.  Provinces have no control over criminal law and provincial criminal courts are just a matter of which jurisdiction is handling the proceedings.  Since there is only 'Federal Crimes' in Canada and there are no such thing as 'Provencial Crimes' Canadians don't use either language.  We just call them 'Crimes'.  ...Cause we're not weird like in America where @#$%ing a horse can be legal in one state, illegal in another state, but ALSO illegal in the first state if you @#$% that horse inside a post office...

 

Bonus fact: The difference between a provincial and federal prison in Canada is only the length of the prisoners sentence.  2 years or less for provincial prison, 2+ years for federal prison.