Is it illegal to send text messages to threaten others?

Sending text messages to scare others, threatening others, will violate the law and intimidate others. Generally, it will be treated as a public security case. If the circumstances of intimidating others are very bad, it constitutes the crime of provoking trouble. There are two kinds of SMS threats. One is that if the circumstances are minor and have no consequences, they can be detained for five to ten days or fined about 500. The other is that if the circumstances are serious enough to constitute criminal punishment, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years.

Legal analysis

It is illegal to insult, intimidate or interfere with the normal life of others by SMS. If a conflict between the parties fails to be properly handled, and one party sends an angry message to the other party, which interferes with the normal life of the other party, it shall be given corresponding administrative punishment. Threat information refers to the information that the victim is worried and anxious about personal safety and can affect his normal work, study, life and entertainment, such as threatening to do harm to the victim and his relatives. There are two points in the determination of this behavior. The first is that it must be an act of sending obscenity, insult, intimidation or other information many times. If it is done occasionally, the circumstances are minor and the social harm is not great, education can generally be criticized and not considered as a violation of public security management; Second, whether the information is obscene, insulting or threatening, it must interfere with the normal life of others. The violation of public security management by sending information to interfere with others' lives refers to the act of sending obscene, insulting, intimidating or other information repeatedly to interfere with others' normal lives, which is not serious enough for criminal punishment.

legal ground

Article 42 of the People's Republic of China (PRC) Public Security Administration Punishment Law shall be detained for less than five days or fined less than five hundred yuan for any of the following acts; If the circumstances are serious, he shall be detained for not less than five days but not more than ten days, and may also be fined not more than 500 yuan: (1) writing threatening letters or threatening the personal safety of others by other means; (2) publicly insulting others or fabricating facts to slander others; (3) fabricating facts, falsely accusing and framing others, and attempting to subject others to criminal investigation or public security administration punishment; (4) Threatening, insulting, beating or retaliating against witnesses and their close relatives; (5) sending obscene, insulting, intimidating or other information for many times to interfere with the normal life of others; (six) voyeurism, sneak shots, eavesdropping, spreading the privacy of others.