You can easily be bothered, upset and even harassed by someone, without being harassed to the point that you fear – or fear reasonably – for your safety. That is a Toronto judge's common-sense, logical conclusion in a criminal case about Twitter.

Stephanie Guthrie was the main complainant against Gregory Elliott. Ms. Guthrie, who describes herself as a gender justice consultant, and Mr. Elliott, a graphic artist, were friendly for a time; they dined together once. He offered to design a poster for her group Women in Toronto Politics. She declined, and then in due course she blocked his tweets. So did the other complainant, Heather Reilly.

On the face of it, that could have meant that any abusive communication would not reach either of the two women – and no communication would mean no harassment at all.

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But a would-be antagonist could guess the hashtags that Ms. Guthrie or Ms. Reilly would follow, and apparently Mr. Elliott did. A hashtag on Twitter instantly creates a public forum. Often such a forum attracts a huge amount of unparliamentary language, with (alas) no speaker to rule members out of order. The virulence of debate on Twitter can become excessive, and quite a few of the complainants' own descriptions on Twitter of Mr. Elliott were overheated.

Justice Brent Knazan of the Ontario Court of Justice believed all the testimony of the two women – but he did not believe that Mr. Elliott's words added up to a plausible fear that he was on the verge of physically attacking them. Verdict: not guilty.

Criminal law is a heavy and usually blunt instrument, and a very high hurdle must be cleared to find someone guilty. Some have seen this case as declaring the online world to be a lawless place, where harassment can never be stopped or prosecuted. It is anything but.

For example, last October, Damany Skeene of Toronto was convicted of criminal harassment and uttering threats against Conservative MP Michelle Rempel on Twitter. He was sentenced to six months' house arrest. Criminal law exists and has force, even online.