Judge throws out Lori Drew MySpace cyberbully convictions

Lori Drew, the Missouri mother that posed as a teenage boy on MySpace and perpetrated a hoax on a neighbor’s teenage daughter that resulted in the girl committing suicide, is getting her earlier convictions thrown out. From the Associated Press (via MSNBC):

U.S. District Judge George Wu said he was tentatively acquitting Lori Drew of misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization.

Drew was convicted in November, but the judge said that if she is to be found guilty of illegally accessing computers, anyone who has ever violated the social networking site’s terms of service would be guilty of a misdemeanor.

“You could prosecute pretty much anyone who violated terms of service,” he said. The judge, who had delayed the ruling repeatedly, reminded participants that it is only a tentative ruling until he files it in writing.

How about you only prosecute those who violate the terms of service when someone dies as a result of their act?

It’s as though a long time ago we all agreed that it was OK to lie, cheat, mislead, humiliate, and harass someone as long as it was “only” done on the Internet.

Why is that?

Lori Drew knew she was doing something wrong when she went on MySpace pretending to be a teenage boy. She created the fake persona for the sole purpose of humiliating Megan Meier.

Lori Drew’s final message to Megan Meier said that the world would be better without her. Megan Meier hung herself shortly after that. A coincidence?

Hardly.