Is it against the law to threaten someone online?

If someone was to tell me they wanted to kill me, they would kill me, or they would try to harm me or someone else, would that be against the law? Not if they do it, but if they simply say they want to or will do it, a threat I suppose you could say. The state in question that someone has done this, is in Tn. It wasn’t dirrected at me, but at one of the members at a web forum that I admin over. Please let me know, thanks!

I would suggest you ask the police about it or consult the FBI. At a lower level, you can check with the ISP of the person who made the threat.

At least, making a threat online is a violation of your TOA of the ISP.

A threat is a threat no matter how it was made. If the person it was directed to found it credible, thought it may actually harm him, then it is a crime no matter how it was done.

First, know that the FBI doesn’t give a rat’s ass about online threats, unless there is serious evidence that there is an actual intent to carry it out. And even then they don’t much care.

Second, check the laws of your State - they are all online, so you should be able to easily search for the relevant sections. Note that this web community may also be protected by laws which protect people from harassment over phone lines, any data lines, and even more general laws which protect either corporations and their employees and not-for-profit entities.

Third, do the second thing above, but for the State the miscreant is in.

Fourth, if you have their IP, it’s time for some evidence gathering. Put their IP into Google - you would not believe how effective this is at finding patterns of abuse and threats on other Boards. Also, if you want to start taking the fight to them - post their IP on the site, and expose all of the nasty business to the light of day.

Sick little fucks that threaten and harass rely on intimidation to try and convince you that it is somehow “illegal” or even “immoral” not to post their IPs and access information. I can assure you, as an Admin, it is perfectly legal in every State I know of to post their IP and access informaiton, as well as all legally-available and legally-accessible information about them. The only reason IPs are commonly hidden is out of “courtesy”. But when threats are made, all right to courtesy is gone.

Next, you need to take a pre-emptive strike, and post a general notice in your Rules of Access. Here is mine, which you can use as an example:

::Heartfelt Applause, applause::

It is called cyberstalking.

Forty-four states in the USA have laws against it.

See http://www.ncsl.org/programs/lis/cip/stalk99.htm for the list as well as specific laws of each state.

Although I’m no lawyer, I would imagine that a threat is a threat, no matter how it is communicated.

Even though the Internet is relatively new, I’d hazard a guess that our legal system has already had to deal with death threats made by telegraph, telephone, CB radio, charades, sign language, and so on.

For example, it just occured to me that it would be impossible to verbally communicate a death threat to a completely-deaf person. Just because you’re deaf shouldn’t mean the other guy doesn’t go to jail.

Of course, regardless of the law, getting the authorities to pay any attention to an online death threat is another matter altogether.