Store Research
SB 1411 of 2010: Impersonation on the Internet Misdemeanor
December 10, 2010
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SB 1411 of 2010:
What: Added § 528.5 to the Penal Code relating to impersonation on the internet. Creates a new misdemeanor for when a person knowingly and without consent credibly impersonates another actual person on the Internet, or other electronic means in order to harm, intimidate, threaten, or defraud another person. This bill also provides that an aggrieved party may bring a civil action against the violator for compensatory damages and injunctive relief or equitable relief.
Who: Senator Joe Simitian of Palo Alto introduced this bill on February 19, 2010. This bill was supported by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, California Peace Officers’ Association, the California State Sheriffs’ Association, and the Crime Victims United of California.
Why: Looking at specific past misdeeds, the author related the following examples:
1) "Someone on Twitter impersonated St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa and made him appear to mock the deaths of two Cardinal players.
2) A sports reporter in Texas pretended to be two locally prominent college football players and sent obscene messages to underage girls.
3) A 40-year-old woman harassed the 17-year-old daughter of her ex-husband's girlfriend by posting the daughter's photo, workplace, e-mail and cell phone on a Craigslist forum where people go to pursue sexual encounters. The 17-year-old subsequently received lewd calls, e-mails and even photos soliciting sexual acts, causing much emotional distress to the young girl. (This occurred in St. Peters, Missouri after the Lori Drew case and after Missouri had enacted laws against impersonation done through the Internet).
4) A mother creates a Facebook page claiming to be a young man and develops a 'cyber' relationship with one of her daughter's peers, a 13-year-old girl who at the time was engaged in a quarrel with her daughter. After weeks of friendly messaging back and forth the mother, in the guise of this young man, tells the girl that 'the world would be a better place without you.' The 13-year-old girl then committed suicide by hanging herself. (This is the famous Lori Drew case, also occurring in Missouri. The author noted that “Our bill makes it clear that one has to impersonate an actual person to be a crime, so it wouldn't have applied in this instance. However, a similar scenario can easily be imagined where an actual person is impersonated, resulting in the same tragic ending.)
According to the author, these cited examples “are real crimes that have to be addressed, and our current statutes do not do so in a thorough enough manner. It is imperative that we specifically address false impersonation done on an Internet Web site or through other electronic means in order to prevent instances like these from repeating themselves. Senator Simitian stated further that: "SB 1411 will address these issues by making it unlawful to knowingly and without consent credibly impersonate another person through or on an Internet Web site or by other electronic means with the intent to harm, intimidate, threaten or defraud another person. An impersonation is credible where another person would reasonably believe, or did reasonably believe, that the defendant was or is the person who was impersonated."