Court Opinion

ID: 3768995
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2016-07-06 07:22:18.163462+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:54.250056
License: Public Domain

{¶ 19} It is a scary thought that someone could go to jail for posting a comment on the Internet. If so, we could not build jails fast enough.
 {¶ 20} The statute on telecommunications harassment is the successor to the former telephone-harassment law. It is designed to prohibit harassing or threatening calls. Of course the calls may now be made over a traditional phone line, a cellular phone, or the Internet. But posting an annoying — but nonthreatening — comment on a website is not a crime under this statute. It might well be a civil wrong, but it is not jailable. The First Amendment would not allow *Page 739 
punishment for making a nonthreatening comment on the Internet, just as it would not for writing a newspaper article, posting a sign, or speaking on the radio.