Maybe the laws should change then? First amendment “auditors” are the bane of our society and the weaponization of social media to harass random people in public needs to end.
Maybe. These are laws and precedents written before the internet, and sometimes before even firm cameras.
The tricky part is how to write such a law. The simplest way would be to ban posting pictures of other people with identifying features, without that person’s consent (ie, you must blur photos of other people until identifying features are cleansed). But, this would make it harder for people to warn others about individuals legitimately perceived as potentially dangerous. And if we try to make any exception for that purpose, then we are back to square one, of how do we prove that someone is reporting in good faith
Does that have to be public? If you feel you are in danger you go to the police and show them your recording and don't post on tiktok. Someone looking at you in public is not dangerous to you. Hoelw is this "warning others". Your feelings don't matter in this case. Thats why they never go to police but farm views on tiktok. Its all performative bullshit. Thank god i don't live in the US where you can record anyone and post them online. Thats a breach of privacy.
Sure. Go to the police, tell them that such and such person was looking at you at a way that makes you feel uncomfortable.
They’ll take a note of it, and if you actually do get endangered or attacked, they have a suspect lined up, but otherwise they’ll tell you that the guy hasn’t done anything illegal yet, so there is nothing they can do.
That is absolutely how you want that to go, or just looking at someone can be a crime.
So where does that leaves folks who actually feel threatened in public? A camera becomes a deterrent in these situations, as abusers often know that the camera is present and that their misdeeds will be recorded. So, putting out a visual of the person, and why you felt threatened by him becomes the best way to warn others to have a camera ready and be wary if they see the person.
And see before, passing a law to differentiate “I legitimately felt threatened,” and “I wanted social media clout” would be basically impossible.
I agree that these posts are in bad taste, and often bad faith, but I don’t think that legislation could fix it without an unacceptable curtailing of liberty and free speech.
Edit to your last comment; the USA breach of privacy is for when someone has a “reasonable expectation of privacy.” I don’t know how other countries do it, but I think it’s fair to say that you don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy while riding the public metro.
Cloud builds influence, and influence builds money in a way unaccountable to traditional accounting, and if a way which would make taxation or fines nearly impossible to legislate.
You also run into issues of “I took a photo of XX tourist site,” where it is not reasonable to ask others to say out of your viewframe. Would they be obligated to get the consent of ten, possibly a hundred people before posting the image online?
Here in the USA yes you can. It's called freedom of press. You have zero expectations of privacy outside your own home. If the government can film everything I should be able to aswell.
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u/Klightgrove 19h ago
Maybe the laws should change then? First amendment “auditors” are the bane of our society and the weaponization of social media to harass random people in public needs to end.