Arrested For What They Said On Social Media Sites

Technology trends usually begin in Asia and Europe, with social media trends following suit. Lately, there have a slew of arrests made in Asian countries for status updates people are leaving on their social media sites. The two cases I look at in this blog post both occurred on Facebook.

The first case comes from Today Online “Man being investigated for allegedly inciting violence online” in regards to status updates Abdul Malik Mohammed Ghazali left on Facebook. The Singapore police arrested Ghazali for making comments on his Facebook page in regards to “burning” a certain prime minister for various incidents Ghazali felt this prime minister was responsible for.

Another individual in Thailand spoke out against the Royal Thai Family and was arrested under a specific Thai law, “Man Arrested After Lese Majeste Facebook Comment (original blog post by US Asian Correspondent). Both these incidents were in Asian countries and happened within the last month.

This sparks interest to see how this will eventually pan out in the United States. The statements made by the men arrested above may have been violations of law in the countries of incident, but how will this play out in the United States? We have elections coming up and people get very upset and angry over politics. If you say the wrong thing on your Facebook page or Twitter profile, about a candidate, the President, etc. you may have the Secret Service knocking on your door.

The United States is based on “Free Speech,” but there are also laws that prevent individuals from alluding to committing violent acts against individuals even if they are not an elected leader. This story has not been written yet and I feel there is plenty of case law that will result from the numerous future arrests for violations of this nature. MV