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Sen. Boyle pushes to ban posting violent acts on social media

<p>A state senator from Long Island is looking to make posting violent acts on social media illegal.</p>

News 12 Staff

Apr 29, 2017, 2:45 AM

Updated 2,793 days ago

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Sen. Boyle pushes to ban posting violent acts on social media
A state senator from Long Island is looking to make posting violent acts on social media illegal.
Sen. Phil Boyle wants to make it illegal to upload or livestream violent acts on social media.
The push comes in response to a spike in incidents like the Cleveland shooting on Easter. Steve Stephens gunned down a 74-year-old man in Ohio and then posted the footage of the murder on Facebook. Stephens later killed himself.
Violators of the proposed law could face up to four years in prison as well as fines.
While social media attorney Paul Rubell agrees something has to be done, he says the language of this particular bill may be unconstitutional. He says the problem is that the bill focuses on the recording aspect as the crime, but he thinks it should be the publishing that makes it illegal.
Still, Rubell says Boyle is right in highlighting what he calls, the dark side of social media.
Boyle says he hopes the bill soon passes through the state Senate. If it does, he says he'll then make the push to get the Assembly to approve it.