"If what is being said and/or done is both inappropriate and threatening, it goes beyond moral limits. An insult, for example, is inappropriate: it’s speech that it is reasonable to expect not to occur. A threat is anything that puts the well-being of at least one other person into question or at stake (a person cannot threaten themselves). If and only if both conditions are met, the thing being said or done has exceeded moral limits to free speech or action. The classic example for the combination is shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theatre. If we assume that there is no fire, a person shouting “Fire!” is acting in an inappropriate way; they are doing something out of place. By itself this isn’t a sufficient condition for exceeding free speech limits; but if the individual shouts it in a way that causes the audience to panic, they put the safety of others at stake. Then they have acted in a way that is both inappropriate and threatening, so their action exceeds the proper limits of free speech. There are situations in which either inappropriate behaviour might not put peoples’ well-being into jeopardy, or where threats are entirely appropriate. An example of the former is when someone refuses to take their shoes off when entering a building despite having been asked to do so; an instance of the latter might be when boxers at a weigh-in brag to each other what they’re going to do to each other during the fight. The former doesn’t cause recognisable harm, while the latter is not inappropriate (there may always be extra factors that complicate these claims). Where political action is concerned, it is always possible that the ‘inappropriateness’ or ‘threat’ might only be perceived by a dominant power that is itself oppressing free speech. Therefore another qualification here is that it must always be shown that the ‘moral limits’ being tested are genuinely helpful to the self-determination of the people in general. Thus an act might be both threatening and otherwise inappropriate, but it might also be intended to undermine a repressive power, in which case it does not exceed moral limits to free speech/action, precisely because it acts against a political system which prevents speech and action from being freely exercised." - Alastair Robert Gray

"If what is being said and/or done is both inappropriate and threatening, it goes beyond moral limits. An insult, for example, is inappropriate: it’s speech that it is reasonable to expect not to occur. A threat is anything that puts the well-being of at least one other person into question or at stake (a person cannot threaten themselves). If and only if both conditions are met, the thing being said or done has exceeded moral limits to free speech or action. The classic example for the combination is shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theatre. If we assume that there is no fire, a person shouting “Fire!” is acting in an inappropriate way; they are doing something out of place. By itself this isn’t a sufficient condition for exceeding free speech limits; but if the individual shouts it in a way that causes the audience to panic, they put the safety of others at stake. Then they have acted in a way that is both inappropriate and threatening, so their action exceeds the proper limits of free speech. There are situations in which either inappropriate behaviour might not put peoples’ well-being into jeopardy, or where threats are entirely appropriate. An example of the former is when someone refuses to take their shoes off when entering a building despite having been asked to do so; an instance of the latter might be when boxers at a weigh-in brag to each other what they’re going to do to each other during the fight. The former doesn’t cause recognisable harm, while the latter is not inappropriate (there may always be extra factors that complicate these claims). Where political action is concerned, it is always possible that the ‘inappropriateness’ or ‘threat’ might only be perceived by a dominant power that is itself oppressing free speech. Therefore another qualification here is that it must always be shown that the ‘moral limits’ being tested are genuinely helpful to the self-determination of the people in general. Thus an act might be both threatening and otherwise inappropriate, but it might also be intended to undermine a repressive power, in which case it does not exceed moral limits to free speech/action, precisely because it acts against a political system which prevents speech and action from being freely exercised." - Alastair Robert Gray -