The U.S. Supreme Court is considering the free-speech rights of people who use violent or threatening language on Facebook and other social media.
The justices were to hear arguments on Monday in the case of a man who was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for posting graphically violent rap lyrics on Facebook about killing his estranged wife, shooting up a class of young children and attacking an FBI agent.
Anthony Elonis says he was just venting his anger over a broken marriage and never meant to threaten anyone. But his wife didn’t see it that way, and neither did federal prosecutors. A jury convicted Elonis of violating a federal law that makes it a crime to threaten another person.
A federal appeals court rejected his claim that his comments were protected by the First Amendment.
Lawyers for Elonis argue that the government must prove he actually intended his comments to threaten others. The government says it doesn’t matter what Elonis intended and that the true test of a threat is whether his words make a reasonable person feel threatened.
The case has drawn widespread attention from free-speech advocates who say comments on Facebook, Twitter and other social media can be hasty, impulsive and easily misinterpreted and could be taken out of context when viewed by a wider audience.
So far, most lower courts have rejected that view, ruling that a “true threat” depends on how an objective person perceives the message.
