笑臉、愛心、祈禱以及一些其他emoji表情包已成為成千上萬的網(wǎng)友們發(fā)短信、郵件以及聊天信息中開玩笑的必備,然而,一個中學(xué)生卻因為發(fā)表情,被警察找上了門。
The 12-year-old from Fairfax, Va., has been charged with threatening her school after police said she posted a message on Instagram in December laden with gun, bomb and knife emojis. It read in part:Killing “meet me in the library Tuesday”
這個孩子今年12歲,來自弗吉尼亞州的費爾法克斯,她被指控威脅學(xué)校。警方稱她去年12月在Instagram上發(fā)布了一條包含手槍、炸彈和小刀的表情符號信息。這條信息的部分內(nèi)容為:殺呀,周二圖書館見。
As emoji and their relative the emoticon have rocketed from web slang to the unofficial language of the Internet age, the case is one of a growing number where authorities contend the cartoonish symbols have been used to stalk, harass, threaten or defame people. And that has left the police and courts wrestling with how to treat a newly popular idiom many still dimly grasp.
Emoji以及其他相關(guān)的一些表情符號正迅速被網(wǎng)絡(luò)廣泛傳播,慢慢轉(zhuǎn)變成了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)時代的非官方語言。據(jù)政府部門的數(shù)據(jù),目前已經(jīng)有越來越多的表情符號被用于跟蹤、騷擾、威脅或詆毀他人,該案正是其中之一。這種含義尚未完全明確的新流行習(xí)語也給警察和法院帶來了很大的困擾和挑戰(zhàn)。
Police are trying to judge just how serious to take threatening messages using emoji, which are most often deployed in a light-hearted manner. Attorneys have argued over whether emoji should be presented to juries as evidence. Experts say the biggest problem is simply determining in court what a defendant actually intended by sending a particular emoji.
一般來說,用表情符號發(fā)布威脅信息都會被認(rèn)定是隨意開玩笑,但是什么程度的信息才是會真實發(fā)生的?警方正試圖裁定。律師也在討論表情符號可不可以作為證據(jù)提交給陪審團(tuán)。專家說,最大的問題是,被告被訴訟至法庭只是因為他發(fā)了一個特定的表情,這種說法聽起來不是很讓人信服。
Is a winkie face emoji ironic, flirtatious or menacing? What exactly do the popular dancing girl or grinning pile of poo emoji actually mean — if anything — when appended to a message? Emoji have no set definition and their use can vary from user-to-user and context-to-context.
那么眨眼的表情,是表示輕浮呢還是威脅呢?一個流行的跳舞女孩表情,或者是一個露齒大笑的表情如果被加到信息中,那又到底是什么意思呢?Emoji沒有給出明確定義,表情的使用也因用戶的不同、情境的不同而含義也大不同。
“You understand words in a particular way,” said, assistant director of the Cyber Law clinic at Harvard Law School. “It’s challenging with symbols and images to unravel that.”
“你可以根據(jù)語境去了解文字所代表的含義,”哈佛法學(xué)院的網(wǎng)絡(luò)法律研究所副主任Dalia Topelson Ritvo說,“解讀符號和圖片所代表的意義,這將很具挑戰(zhàn)性。”
It began on Dec. 14, when a resource officer at Sidney Lanier Middle School in Fairfax was made aware of the threatening Instagram post and others, according to a search warrant.
搜查令顯示,這件事始于12月14日,費爾法克斯悉尼拉尼爾中學(xué)的一位管理員在Instagram上看到了這則恐怖消息,認(rèn)為這可能會給學(xué)校的其他人帶來威脅。
The officer began interviewing students and sent an emergency request to obtain the IP address of the user associated with the Instagram account. The investigation led to the 12-year-old, who was also a student at Lanier. The Post generally does not name juveniles accused of crimes.
隨后,管理員開始調(diào)查這些學(xué)生,并發(fā)送緊急需求要求獲取與此Instagram帳戶相關(guān)聯(lián)的用戶IP地址。經(jīng)調(diào)查,這則消息由一名12歲的拉尼爾學(xué)生發(fā)布。文中并未指明具體姓名。
The search warrant states the girl admitted to authorities she posted the messages on Instagram and did it under the name of another student. She was charged with threatening the school and computer harassment. A spokesman for Fairfax County schools said the alleged threat was deemed “not credible.”
搜查結(jié)果表明,該女孩承認(rèn)她用另一學(xué)生的名義在Instagram上發(fā)布的消息。她被指控威脅學(xué)校以及騷擾網(wǎng)絡(luò)。費爾法克斯學(xué)校的一位發(fā)言人稱,所謂的威脅是“不可信的”。
The girl was scheduled to make her first appearance in juvenile court on the charges at the end of the month, but it is unclear whether the case has been resolved since the hearings are not open to the public.
女孩月底會首次出現(xiàn)在青少年法庭,因為聽證會不公開,目前尚不清楚該案是否已得到解決。
Authorities have not released a motive in the case, but the girl’s mother said the girl posted the messages in response to being bullied at school.
官方并沒有公布此次事件的作案動機(jī),但是女孩母親表明,女孩曾說過,她在學(xué)校經(jīng)常被欺負(fù)。
“She’s a good kid. She’s never been in trouble before,” the woman said. “I don’t think it’s a case where there should have been charges.”
“她是個好孩子。之前從來沒有做過什么壞事,”女孩母親說,“我認(rèn)為學(xué)校不應(yīng)該控告她。”