In Rhode Island, lying online is no longer a crime

Rhode Island state law makers voted this month to repeal an obscure 1989 law that forbid spreading untruths online, and punished scoff-laws with a misdemeanor charge and a $500 fine.

The law was enacted to stop scammers and con artists from preying on the denizens of the newly-founded Web. But it also weirdly included over-broad language that, “outlawed the ‘transmission of false data’ regardless of whether liars stood to profit from their deception or not,” reported the Associated Press.