Death threats on Facebook

Can we make threats against someone on Facebook and protect the basis of freedom of expression ? This is the issue that will be addressed, Monday and for the first time, the Supreme Court of the United States. She will have to say whether death threats on Facebook to carry a malicious intent, or if they are protected by the Constitution.
The nine judges of the High Court, none of which seems to have a Facebook account, going to look at the message of a man sent to his ex-wife, and published on the social network: "There is a way to love you but thousands to kill you. I will not rest until your body will not be apart, bathed in the blood of his agonizing wounds. Hurry up, die, bitch ! "
Arrested and charged, Anthony Elonis claims that his messages had a virtue "therapeutic", without any "intention" to kill, and therefore do not constitute "a real threat." Currently, US law prohibits "the real threats are defined as statements that can reasonably be interpreted as the serious expression of an intent to harm." 
At court trial, upheld on appeal, the accused was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and three years of supervised release. The decision of the Court in this case is in any case likely to have an impact on violence or harassment on social networking, a phenomenon that continues to grow in recent years.

Source : AFP