Instructor: Jonathan Holbrook,

Jonathan Holbrook joined the UNC Chapel Hill School of Government in 2017 as the School’s first-ever Prosecutor Educator. Jonathan previously worked as a prosecutor for nearly ten years, both in state court with the Wake County District Attorney’s Office and in federal court with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Jonathan earned his B.A. from Northwestern University, and his J.D. with Honors from UNC Chapel Hill School of Law. Jonathan writes and updates legal entries for NC PRO, the new online criminal procedure resource for North Carolina prosecutors, as well as the NC Criminal Law Blog, and he provides assistance, consultation, and training to prosecutors on a wide variety of issues.

Session Description: 

The use of social media has exploded in recent years, and nearly 70% of U.S. adults now report using social media for around 2 hours each day. As recent events have starkly illustrated, this makes social media one of the most common platforms for everything from humor to political discussion to dangerous threats. Prosecutors must be able to identify and distinguish protected speech from “true threats” that violate the law. This presentation uses precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court and Virginia appellate courts to explain the key factors that separate free speech from threats on social media, and uses examples pulled from the case law to apply those factors to real-world scenarios and discuss why they would or would not constitute a “true threat.”

This webinar is open to Virginia prosecutors.

Click here to register by 5pm January 20, 2021