When are social media threats a crime? Supreme Court to decide

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

A convicted stalker from Colorado is asking the Supreme Court this week to toss out the law that put him in prison for sending hundreds of messages on social media to a singer-songwriter who felt threatened by the contact.

Billy Raymond Counterman, who spent four and a half years behind bars, says he never intended to harm rising-star performer Coles Whalen, whom he'd never met, and that the First Amendment protects his ability to communicate with a public figure.

Whalen said she feared for her life and that the years of incessant messages from Counterman on Facebook inflicted significant emotional distress and sent her into hiding. She no longer performs openly in public.

-snip-

The First Amendment protects most speech but not libel, obscenity or what the Supreme Court has called "true threats." Those can result in prosecution.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/when-are-social-media-threats-a-crime-supreme-court-to-decide/ar-AA19X8FZ

[Karadeniz]

1. This better be a no-brainer.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. I don't know what this guy did, but it is an interesting question at 30K foot level

First thought is ... you can block people on social media, been that way since almost the start, and that alone brings up an interesting question ... if you send messages that could make someone uncomfortable, but they were blocked/never seen by the someone ... is that prosecutable?

Also, would saying something like "I'm in love with you, please let me take you to dinner" to some celebrity every day for a year ... is that 'a true threat'? Or does it maybe count as 'stalking'? What if you blocked by the person for 90% of that year?

I can see a lot of situations that could probably use some 'clearing up', though I'd prefer it's codified by the US Legislature.