Pair Plead Guilty To "Menacing Tweets"

7th January 2014

I'm puzzled as to why little acts like this make the news headlines and welcome any input. This could be a very wide-ranging subject.

I remember growing up being subjected to very menacing comments, while in primary school and secondary school - I pretty much ignored them.


A man and a woman have admitted sending "menacing" tweets to a feminist campaigner who wanted a female face on the new £10 banknote.

Isabella Sorley, 23, and John Nimmo, 25, both pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates' Court to posting the messages to Caroline Criado-Perez last July.

Ms Criado-Perez was subjected to abuse on the microblogging site Twitter after successfully calling for the 19th century novelist Jane Austen to be put on the note.

Labour MP Stella Creasy was said to have also been targeted when she came to the defence of the freelance journalist.

Ms Criado-Perez helped persuade the Bank of England to replace Charles Darwin with Austen on the new £10 from 2017 following a petition signed by more than 35,000 people.

The announcement by the Bank was hailed as a "brilliant day for women" by Ms Criado-Perez.

And it followed news last April that social reformer Elizabeth Fry was to be dropped from the £5 note in favour of Winston Churchill.

The Crown Prosecution Service had announced last month that Sorley, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Nimmo, of South Shields, were both charged.

However the CPS said it would not be in the public interest to prosecute over messages allegedly sent to Ms Creasy.

http://news.sky.com/story/1191536/twitter-abuse-pair-admit-menacing-messages

I think its a combination of things
firstly someone sending menacing tweets is, by the nature of the internet, anonymous, which is more scary, especially for women. If you have menacing comments made to your face it is easier to judge the ACTUAL level of threat, and also, generally such threats, made in the play ground are fairly empty ones.

AND

I think society has in general become somewhat more "sensitive", people are far more likely to cry foul these days.

Hmmm very true git, the anonymity thing I hadn't really thought about before.

I think you're spot on with both things.

Are "celebrities" best staying away from social media?