The Supreme Court ruled Monday that threats on Facebook are not necessarily a crime — a victory for a man whose Facebook threats got him thrown in prison.
In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Anthony Elonis' rants posted to Facebook about killing his estranged wife were not real threats. Instead, the Supreme Court that ruled they fell under free speech.
Elonis never killed his wife, but the Facebook posts were enough to get him a 44-month prison sentence.
The Supreme Court overturned that ruling, saying the lower courts failed to prove that Elonis' posts were intentionally threatening.
This case has been closely watched since late last year because it required the high court to differentiate between free speech and illegal speech on the Web.
This video includes images from Getty Images.
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