Scottish soccer player Leigh Griffiths has been arrested and charged under the Communications Act. This news comes from BBC News. Griffiths has made bail and will report to court at a later date. Section 127 of the United Kingdoms Communications act states
"(1)A person is guilty of an offence if he—
(a)sends by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character; o
(b)causes any such message or matter to be so sent."
Griffiths tweet directed at Zak Iqba, was deemed racist for saying "back to your own country"
A similar situation occurred about a year ago, but this time a soccer player was on the receiving end of the abuse. Soccer players Ashley Cole and Ashley Young were abused by fans on twitter after missing key kicks in a soccer game. This comes from an article in The Guardian. Due to the abuse on twitter an investigation was launched. No arrests were made.
While I do agree the comment was racist and uncalled for i do believe in freedom of speech. I dont believe that there should be criminal charges against comments made on a social networking site. I think matters such as this should be left to the website to deal with. I believe the proper action would be for twitter to delete the comment and ban Griffiths account and no police charges.