What jurisdictions could a crime committed in an internet chat room fall under?
<p><sup>This arose from an actual conversation in chat. The question was originally posed by Doorknob.</sup></p>

<p>Let's say that someone <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_against_Holocaust_denial" rel="noreferrer">denied the Holocaust</a> in a message posted in a Stack Exchange chat room. This is a crime in many countries. What jurisdiction(s) could prosecute the offender, given that users from many different countries - some with the law, some without - might be in the room? Would it be the jurisdiction where the servers are? Could the jurisdiction of the IP address of the person who committed the crime prosecute?</p>

<p>Generalising outrageously:</p>

<p>A state (interpreted broadly as an entity with a functioning judicial system; could be a nation or a state or something else) claims jurisdiction for:</p>

<ol>
<li>Acts committed by its citizens,</li>
<li>Acts committed within its territory.</li>
<li>Certain acts committed <em>against</em> its citizens.</li>
<li>Exceptionally egregious crimes with an international character (e.g. piracy, genocide)</li>
</ol>

<p>For your particular example, a state may <em>try</em> to prosecute and its courts <em>might</em> rule that they have jurisdiction if:</p>

<ol>
<li>The perpetrator were a citizen, and/or</li>
<li>The act was committed on their territory, and/or</li>
<li>A citizen is considered to have been a victim of the act.</li>
</ol>

<p>As this is a matter of jurisdiction only we don't have to worry about things like if such a prosecution is realistic or a conviction is likely; a court would need to be satisfied that it had jurisdiction before it made such a decision anyway. This also lets us avoid the question of if such a statement in a chatroom that requires membership of this site is sufficiently public to offend the law; as far as I am aware most of these laws require <strong>public</strong> expression.</p>

<p>So brushing over all of that then a state in which the statement was published could claim jurisdiction; that would be any state with a sufficiently advanced internet connection that the offending statement could be accessed i.e. pretty much any state that wanted to have a go.</p>

internet jurisdiction