There’s a growing thread over at WebmasterWorld today about the very much unsettled legal matters involving blog and web publishers being held legally responsible for the comments and content posted by other users.
In our burgeoning social media internet, online defamation, libel and slander are becoming an enormous problem - both because of the very real need to protect freedom of speech and expression from well-heeled legal abuse, but also to protect the rights of those who are being slammed online, often unfairly or for false pretenses.
See, it’s easy to view a plaintiff suing after being called a scumbag or a crook as a scumbag or crook who is being “outed”, thus reinforcing the power to the people-ness of the internet.
But what about when the allegations are just flat out not true - like AT ALL. As in the person writing the offensive content is mentally ill, or an unethical competitor, or just someone who fails to grasp the lasting effects spouting off about something can have in a thoroughly cached and indexed world of bits and bytes.
Blogs may be great places for ranting, but “free speech” can get expensive. I heard a story on TV news this morning about a blogger who got sued for writing negative things about her child’s day care. I couldn’t find a Web version of the story, but was surprised to find how much blog lawsuit activity there is:
