New Mexico proposal would apply phone crime rules to online messages

The proposal would apply the listed crime rules to electronic communications. Electronic communications include phone calls, social media posts, texts, instant messages, and email. The bill defines social media as an online service where users create accounts and share or view content made by users. The text covers specified obscene, threatening, extortionate, repeated anonymous, or malicious communications; the first listed kind of conduct requires intent to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy, or offend. Covered language or threats would count as initial evidence of that intent. A first offense would be a misdemeanor. A person with a qualifying prior conviction would face a fourth-degree felony. The text would treat an offense as committed where the communication began or where it was received.