HR 1966 IH: Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act

The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act is an all-out assault on free speech by California Representative Linda Sanchez.  If you recall, Megan Meier was the poor girl who was driven to suicide after reading notes on MySpace from another girl’s hostile mother (Lori Drew).  Prosecutors ended up not being able to find good charges to file against Lori Drew, but this legislation is NOT the way to go about fixing the issue.  Essentially Representative  Linda Sanchez killing a spider in the basement of a house using a tactical nuke, wiping out an entire area of rights to cure the cyberbullying issue.

Linda Sanchez-D is a member of the House of Representatives who apparently just wants to win headlines without resolving real issues.  The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act makes it illegal to use any electronic speech meant to “coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person.”  The penalty is two years in prison.  This means that if you write something on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, text, email, telephones, or blogs that might be interpreted as cyberbullying, you could be facing down hard time.  The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act has enormous ramifications that extend far beyond the intent of the law.  Linda Sanchez did a very poor job in drafting this legislation and needs to go back to the drawing board.

Every person I know has at one point or another violated this law.  The courts would surely cast down this law, but why must we go through all the trouble and expense of the legal process when Representative Linda Sanchez could just rewrite it so that it was far more limited in scope?

Please write to your representative today and encourage them to actually read what the text of the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act says and unequivocally reject it in the name of free speech!