Tag Archives: hate speech

People are now seeing that the consequences of social media actions can be very real Being obnoxious online now comes with a price. This year, three English soccer players were fined for posting homophobic tweets; a Swansea University student was sentenced to 56 days in jail for posting racist tweets about an ailing British athlete; an Indiana high school student was expelled after tweeting an F-bomb; and a U.S. Marine faced disciplinary measures for turning to Twitter to make light of Trayvon Martin’s death. The SoMe offenses range from dangerous (NASCAR considered punishing a driver for posting a picture to Twitter during the Daytona 500, in which the average speed hovers near 150 mph) to malicious (a jilted Australian was jailed for six months after putting naked pictures of his ex on Facebook), but all point to a new accountability for our actions online.