Article by Kingsley Napley LLP
27th January 2014
… Broadly speaking, individuals who are victims of abuse on Twitter often can seek recourse on the criminal and/or civil courts in one of the following ways:
The Malicious Communications Act 1988 and The Communications Act 2003
The Malicious Communications Act 1988 ("the MCA") makes it a criminal offence to send an electronic communication in any form that is indecent or grossly offensive, or which conveys a threat, or which is false, provided there is an intent to cause distress or anxiety to the recipient. Similarly, the Communications Act 2003 ("the CA") makes it a criminal offence to send messages by means of a public electronic communications network such as Twitter which are grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character. The main distinction between the MCA and the CA is that the scope of the MCA is much broader extending to letters and articles as opposed to solely electronic communications and unlike the CA it is not limited solely to public electronic communications networks. Convicted offenders under both the MCA and the CA can be jailed for up to 6 months and fined up to £5,000.
The MCA and CA provide a framework by which perpetrators of online abuse can be prosecuted however the threshold for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider prosecution is high. Indeed, the CPS have even published prosecution guidelines in an attempt to limit the number of criminal cases being prosecuted for abusive tweets and publications on other social media sites due to the potential high volume of cases.
In the Criado-Perez/Creasy case Judge Howard Riddle said that it was "hard to imagine more extreme threats". Isabella Sorley was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison and John Nimno to 8 weeks in prison with each defendant ordered to pay £400 each to the two victims.
The Protection From Harassment Act 1997
The Protection From Harassment Act 1997 makes it a criminal and civil offence to pursue a course of conduct which causes alarm and distress, which includes the publication of words provided there have been at least two communications. Convicted offenders can be imprisoned for up to 6 months and fined, although this can be increased to up to 5 years and an unlimited fine if harassment causes the victim to fear violence. The victim can also bring a civil claim for damages and an injunction against the abuser, although in reality this is a remedy that is only used by individuals with the financial means to litigate, and only possible if the abuser can be identified, which is not always straightforward…