My Little Aiport 可在非民主的香港唱「Donald Tsang, please die」，但在facebook開個調查(poll)問問「奧巴馬應否被殺」（答案是「應該」、「不應該」、「不知道」及「如他削減我的Health Care就應該」）竟被facebook封殺及被美國Secret Service(!)[聯邦政府的特勤局]調查！
Shame on Facebook! Shame on America!
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/02/kill-obama-facebook-poll_n_307474.html)
並不同意妳的講法﹗美國完蛋與否﹐並非只是看是否容許網上調查詢問“奧巴馬應否被殺”這樣簡單。
ReplyDelete在甘乃迪(John Kennedy)被刺之後﹐美國國會就已經立法﹐禁止所有主張謀殺或行刺美國總統的言論。美國人有權用選票將奧巴馬趕落台﹐但無資格去取一個人的生命。正如在戲院內明知無火警﹐但故意大叫走火警一樣﹐這些言論並不受美國憲法修正案有關保護言論自由的條款所保障。
but this isn't a website where they're recruiting people to actually kill obama.
ReplyDeleteit's not even a facebook group of any kind where they build a network full of people who do want to kill him (or even simply those want him killed but don't plan on taking any actions towards that goal)
it's just a silly poll that says: should he be killed (with no particular suggestion of how or by whom this should be carried out)
and the answer 'yes, if he cuts my health care' makes it obvious that it's just a joke
if even something like this comes under secret service investigation, then next time you say "i hope [evil politician name] dies!!!" or "去死啦！" or "我想殺死你呀！", you might be at risk of a criminal offense! next time you call someone like regina ip a "bitch", they might prosecute you for hate-speech!
protecting freedom of speech involves making sure that people can say these offensive things, with or without good reasons (as seen by the law-makers/enforcers).
otherwise, we would be going down a very very very dangerous slippery slope
1. There is no prosecution at all, just investigation and "verbal warning". This shows that the polling is not illegal.
ReplyDeleteIf the subject of such polling is donald tsang, and the person who make this polling is in hong kong, he/she will be prosecuted with the charge of "Access to computer with criminal or dishonest intent"
2. If the wording changed to "should Barak Obama die" or "should Barak Obama go to die", there maybe no problem at all. The main problem is the use of word "kill" which implies the use of force to harm somebody. Of course I hav queries about why similar facebook groups are not removed.
Agree with 飛蚊導彈. If the poll question was "Obama please die, agree or disagree?", it would've been okay.
ReplyDelete我同你都要爭取民主，平反六四，結束一黨專政。但你這篇文章另我有所懷疑，還是長毛站得住腳。
ReplyDelete飛蚊導彈,The Teacher
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that it would be right for there to be "verbal warning" either - that would serve the purpose of intimation already, which affects how freely people speak their mind
I am not sure if that would be the case in Hong Kong. but even if it was, just because something would happen somewhere, it doesn't mean it is just. If we discuss the things we do in Hong Kong in the Mainland, we'd be imprisoned already. That doesn't mean it would be ok for the US or HK government to imprison us for speaking about politically sensitive things.
micah:
Not sure why this has given you doubts
Care to explain?
Christina, you're a good libertarian. I was one too, when I was your age.
ReplyDelete