Social media are testing the legal boundaries of free speech | Open door

The law on hate speech shaped itself in response to physical confrontations. But now we also live in cyberspace‘Fighting words” is American legal shorthand for the issue of how far a person’s public speech may inflame listeners before it can be justly restrained. Basically, it asks if the speech is likely to produce imminent lawless action.In the UK and some other jurisdictions the same legal issue is labelled more sedately. “Public order” and “breach of the p