How far can media trolls go in threatening public officials? How far do they have to go before they lose First Amendment protection and can be prosecuted?
“[Babak]Taherzadeh
sits in the Dallas County jail, where he has been since June, held on a felony
stalking charge. He is accused of using social media to harass a judge who
oversaw a criminal case against him.
Before his
arrest, he regularly commented online on political issues and public
figures.
Taherzadeh
believes he was exercising his rights to free speech and to petition the
government when he posted negative comments on social media about a state
district judge.
But authorities
see it differently. They say Taherzadeh's tweets threatened physical
harm.
The arrest
warrant affidavit says Judge Brandon Birmingham "is in fear for the life
of his family and for his own" because of Taherzadeh's messages and social
media posts.
In a time when
everyone seems to have an online opinion, when people are emboldened by the
anonymity of screen names, the case
against Taherzadeh shows the limits of free speech.
The First
Amendment protects freedom of speech, religion, the press, the right to
assemble and to petition the government, and it prevents the government from
punishing people who exercise those rights.
And though hate
speech is protected, there is a line when a person's safety is threatened,
legal experts say.
"It's
always been a huge tension there, the concerns about safety versus having an
open dialogue and being able to criticize public officials," said Lata
Nott, executive director of the First Amendment Center.
Court records
show the 46-year-old man used at least 10 Twitter accounts to stalk Birmingham
and the judge's family. Birmingham, who presides over the 292nd District Court
in Dallas County, had overseen a harassment case against Taherzadeh. The judge
declined to comment.
Taherzadeh
claims he felt Birmingham had mishandled the case against him and unfairly
jailed him. He took to Twitter to express his frustration.
Records show
Taherzadeh tweeted on June 8: "Wanna see me bitch slap a State District
Judge? I am not one to trifle with."
He also tweeted
about Birmingham's wife and children. He spoke out against the Dallas Police
Association and a Dallas detective.
Most of his
Twitter handles have been deactivated, but at least two remain.
"There
were a lot of ugly things, but there's nothing against the law that says you
can't be ugly. You can be an a------, and that's what I tend to be a lot of the
time, OK?" he says. "But that's not against the law."
He shrugs off
being labeled as a troll. He doesn't think his words bullied or threatened
anyone. And, he says, most of the time he was just playing a character.
"When I
was in his court, I said, 'yes sir' and 'no sir,'" he says. "The way
I handled it online, that would not be the way I would handle it with him in
person as Babak Taherzadeh."
Taherzadeh says
he regrets the cruder tweets of his that landed him in jail. He says he didn't
mean them to be taken seriously. And while he sits in jail, he most misses his
family, a word he repeats seven times.
But his family
was afraid of him.
By September,
Taherzadeh was tweeting again: "@radleybalko this guy @JudgeBirmingham is
the guy who threatened me with jail for using social media." Birmingham
recused himself from Taherzadeh's case in October, and Taherzadeh pleaded
guilty to the misdemeanor harassment charge in February. He was sentenced to
100 days in county jail.
But once out,
Taherzadeh started tweeting again.
He sent a tweet
that included the phrase, "pray for the death of
@JudgeBirmingham."
Though he
insists he never meant any of his online statements to be considered actual
threats, his online statements toed the line of his constitutional
rights.
Legal experts say hate speech is
protected. Ugly speech is protected. Profane speech is protected. You can
criticize the government and public officials. There is even leeway for obvious
hyperbole and joking about violence.
"Obviously
there is a right to criticize the government, even to criticize the government
very harshly and criticize a public official harshly," said Dale
Carpenter, a professor at the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of
Law.t, and threatening the judge's fa...
hBut that right is limited once you
issue a "true threat" against any person, even a government official,
such as a judge.
"If you put a person in fear that
you are going to do them physical harm, that is not protected speech,"
Carpenter said.
With
technological advances, more people are aware of what others are saying online.
Facebook and Twitter and other social media platforms are the modern gathering
places.
"Now
thousands of people can know it and react to it instantaneously,"
Carpenter said.
And many people believe they are protected from criticism because of the Bill
of Rights.
But Twitter
and Facebook can censor your posts and tweets. News organizations can delete
offensive comments that other readers have flagged as inappropriate or
hateful.
"Private
persons and private organizations are perfectly free to criticize you for your
speech," Carpenter said. "When they are critical of you, they are not
violating the First Amendment"
