Does Bullying Go Under Freeedom of Speech?

[ProClifo]

Title. Discuss.

[Tri Oxide]

It would be a freedom of speech to express your trolling and insulting opinion on someone else?
I don't think so.

[thepro1998]

If it's a Freedom of Speech,

Bully: Hi, I have my rights to bully.
*Bully has bullied Weakling*
Weakling: Well, if bullying is a Freedom of Speech, then murder is freedom to me too.
*Weakling uses knife to stab Bully*

We can't take everything for granted.

[ProClifo]

Agreed with Bisser. And I'm talking about real life, just so you know.

[ProClifo]

If it's a Freedom of Speech,

Bully: Hi, I have my rights to bully.
*Bully has bullied Weakling*
Weakling: Well, if bullying is a Freedom of Speech, then murder is freedom to me too.
*Weakling uses knife to stab Bully*

We can't take everything for granted.

I meant verbal bullying.

[GamersDreamz]

of course its not a freedom of speech its an abuse of someones rights

[thepro1998]

Verbal bullying can be an individual's freedom, but to the target or victim, it's worst than having no freedom at all.

[Hasit]

Well...

According to Wikipedia, the Freedom of speech law has some restrictions which are:

• "for respect of the rights or reputation of others"
• "for the protection of national security or of public order (order public), or of public health or morals"

I think that means if what you say does not respect others, destroys their reputation or it is a danger to national security then Freedom of speech does not protect you.

The first restriction applies to Verbal Bullying so it does not go under Freedom of speech.

To sum up, I don't think so.

[Flybird]

Freedom of speech does not apply to "harming another person's reputation". So I think bullying, whether it is actually harming someone's reputation or not, does not go under freedom or speech.

[Red Hackdaw]

Thread Answered Lock Thread. c:

[Kursed]

Thread Answered Lock Thread. c:

Yes, but we can still discuss it.

[*Thump*]

Verbal abuse of any kind falls under freedom of speech, you get to say whatever you want to anybody according to the Constitution.
Otherwise it wouldn't be purely free speech. Now society as a whole frowns upon and punishes certain words and statements, but that is up to the individual districts/communities/schools/states, etc. and has nothing to to with Federal Law. (Assuming we are talking about America).

[*Thump*]

I'm pretty sure it does.

[ASilva93]

Legally it depends. If I'm waiting in line for my coffee and someone steps on my foot and I call him a "****ing idiot" for doing that and etc... it's not illegal. However I can't tell the guy I will kill him because that would be threatening. That along with everything else would probably earn a breach of peace ticket too.

[Chimpy]

Well...

According to Wikipedia, the Freedom of speech law has some restrictions which are:

• "for respect of the rights or reputation of others"
• "for the protection of national security or of public order (order public), or of public health or morals"

I think that means if what you say does not respect others, destroys their reputation or it is a danger to national security then Freedom of speech does not protect you.

The first restriction applies to Verbal Bullying so it does not go under Freedom of speech.

To sum up, I don't think so.

This is pretty much the current bottleneck when it comes to freedom of speech
Freedom of speech can be limited:

1 In case of a specific law
2 To protect a country
3 To protect the order of a country (This is not the same as point 2, point 2 is about the state whereas point 3 is about it's inhabitants)

The real question is where you draw the line with regards to verbal bullying. When is something bullying, and when is it simply telling the truth?

This dilemma for instance comes up in JV's treatment of it's new members. When you treat a new member like an old one, is it bullying because they can't possibly be finetuned to JV yet or are you simply telling them the truth?

The same thing happens in real life. In my school, we have tons of kids who perceive that they are being bullied, but many others in my school don't feel that way at all. After all, these kids can explode over every little thing. As much as laughing can be enough.

Whether something is within moral boundaries is a very arbitrary line which you'll never be able to determine exactly.

So concluded:
Bullying is forbidden by the law of freedom of speech because discrimination is prohibited by law, but you can call anything discrimination and as a specific form bullying. In the end the reason to forbid it is too weak to take real action against it.

[[1amayzingman]]

From what I understand, freedom of speech as it pertains to the US at least says only that the US government can't make any laws limiting free speech.

So, no. Schools aren't prohibited by the first amendment to prevent bullying because of freedom of speech.

Also, if you can bully another person, why couldn't you stop someone from bullying another? Wouldn't it also be freedom of speech to stop bullies, just as bullying would be?

[Slundr Men]

You know what? I don't like you. So you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to pound you into a pulp every time I see you because you're a pain in the ass.

Uh... no, I don't think it's freedom of speech. It's meanie

[ProClifo]

Thread Answered Lock Thread. c:

no

[ProClifo]

From what I understand, freedom of speech as it pertains to the US at least says only that the US government can't make any laws limiting free speech.

So, no. Schools aren't prohibited by the first amendment to prevent bullying because of freedom of speech.

Some things are more important than freedom of speech

[Firefight]

No, most types of bullying are not protected under free speech. Chimpy and Hasit pretty much summed it up.