Man Sentenced to Jail for Racist Tweet

A student who admitted posting racially offensive comments on Twitter about footballer Fabrice Muamba has been jailed for 56 days.


link [www.bbc.co.uk]

Seems a bit extreme to me. I mean I hate racism but at the same time a prison sentence for tweeting something racist seems a bit too far as far as I'm concerned. I saw the tweets (that have now been deleted), and they where quite offensive but they weren't a case of finding someone and racially abusing them, they were racist tweets about someone in the public eye.

I can't help but think the only reason he was jailed was because of the public frenzy about Muamba and the outpouring of pity and 'praying' for him that has led to such a harsh sentence.

What do others think, is a 56 day jail term for racist tweeting justified?

Jail is a bit OTT.

LOL, racism is bad and what not... But f***. Watch what you post on twitter I guess.

All they'd get from my tweets, would be that I like hugs...

Still, I guess they also want people to consider that using social network media in this way isn't on etc.

I wonder why I'm not arrested yet.... I constantly post about wanting to beat up Obama with my fat ass, bombing certain Anti-rights places, killing people, etc.... Guess racism is more important? lol

am i the only one who thinks that teaching him a lesson ... and more importantly .. making an example of him .. is a good thing ...

Yeah I think this is one of the main reasons behind it. People seem to think that they're untouchable if they tweet stuff that could be illegal but really it's easier for them to get caught.

There's been several racist twitter trolls who have been in trouble lately, I read that some other footballer guy was sent lots of racist hate and he was promptly reported to the police as well.

Jail is a bit much though.

Yes.

I agree that its teaching him a lesson but I don't think it's right that he should be made an example of. That shouldn't be how justice works.

Doesn't that go against freedom of speech? Unless he made some threats which could be construed as being real threats.

I don't personally like the idea of the law making examples of people anyway tbh.


I was thinking about this earlier. I follow a soccer player who is black on twitter. He did the heinous crime of moving from Aberdeen to Rangers and got a lot of abuse from certain dons fans for it.

One 'fan' called him a 'f***ing Judas Nigger'. Horrible thing to tweet imo.

What was interesting about it though was that this wasn't just a tweet that generally went out into twitterverse, but this was a tweet he specifically sent to Sone Aluko.

Now to me that is worse. What this student did was horrible, but it was just a tweet that I'm sure he only ever expected his followers to read, it wasn't intended to be read by Muamba. What this other person did however was specifically tag Aluko in the tweet to ensure Aluko would read it and that makes it worse.

However the person who tweeted Aluko wasn't arrested, convicted and sent to jail, probably because he wasn't used as an example by twitter in the aftermath of an emotive campaign going on in this country where there is social pressure to feel something for Muamba.

If Aluko had just had a heart attack or something similar I wonder if this other tweeter would be in jail right now.

Making racist comments is illegal in the UK as part of the Incitement of Racial Hatred act.

The UK doesn't put as much importance into free speech about these things as America does.

Ask the FBI




I read the [alleged] comments from the footballer, they looked to react more as others reacted. All very uncalled for regardless.

I call everyone I dislike, a nigger. It's not a race thing at all though.

Are you trolling or are you actually serious?