With Lord McAlpine taking legal action against all of those foolish to name him on social networks is it time that we stopped taking for granted the "freedom of speech" that is perceived on sites such as this. Could we be liable as individuals for linking to a tweet for instance that contains a libelious content? Today we have a thread about Jimmy Bullard and in the past no holds barred comments about him have been made. Could we now face the prospect of action against us as posters, if he decided to take action? We have had the racist debate, what is seem as racism to some is clearly not seen that way by others. I myself have very low tollerance of racism, but I have to accept that others have a different view and whilst I will not support that view, I may not always find it offensive and will simply ignore it. Sometimes I will make a stand but in general I will let it slip. But now offensive postings could be investigated and charges could (and have been) brought against posters. Recently a charge against someone posting about the missing 5 year old in Wales, led to a court appearance and conviction. These sort of events would never have been considered just a couple of years ago, but now if the person that comments are aimed at and at least one other person find offence, a charges could be brought. Does this mean that banter has to be toned down? Could it end up that we cannot say anything that could be considered even mindly offensive on here? I would be in the frame just the same as many would. Some do go over the top, but with no standard to adhere to, just how do we guage when something goes from joke to a libel?
Just make sure you get your facts right before posting something, couldn't be simpler. A good example was that thread about Marlon King, as he is a convicted woman beater you can quite clearly question his character without fear of libel by quoting his past history.
There's rather a big difference between accusing some poor bloke of being a *****phile and accusing Jimmy Bullard of being a piss head. I don't think it will have much of an effect on boards like this, though people are far less likely to rush into forwarding on unsubstantiated accusations on Twitter and rightly so.
I do think it could affect boards like this. We had a thread about McLeans twitter, where the OP was simply about being offended. I'm simply saying that it could be easy to overstep the mark when the mark has not been defined.
Don't say anything you are not prepared to be accountable for, simple. Plenty do and it is simply an extension of their ****e charactor. The brain-dead will continue, if only for no better reason than they are brain-dead. Re-twitters are equally guilty, in the eyes of the law it makes no difference in terms of guilt. Twitter is protected; forums such as this I am not too certain of, especially as the moderators participate in the named debates. Personally, I think what McAlpine is doing is a fine thing that is much overdue; he is clearly not doing it out of bile, but to bring some sense of order back to society. Like all such things, he will be the first of many.
The police are currently reviewing what they will and won't act on, with regard to online comments, they have decided that they are investigating too many things and they're going to stop. Just being offensive is not going to be enough for the police to take any action, from now on, they're only going to act on actual threats, or incitement(anything that constitutes a criminal offence), just slagging people off will be ignored from now on, so in many ways things are getting more liberal. Lord McAlpine is taking civil action against people for completely inaccurately claiming he was a *****phile, things like that are incredibly rare. I've never seen anything on here than anyone would have any realistic chance of taking any action against. I really don't think it's a big deal at all, what's been posted online became flavour of the month, there's a general feeling that things have gone too far and as a consequence they're about to be puled back to a more sensible level.
I would agree that the incidence of criminal prosecutions will be rare, but the 'ambulance-chasers' will stoke the fires of civil actions; how many will be in a position to defend their livelihood and family security against a faceless legal machine - all because of a frivilous and unnecessary public comment? To say "just slagging people off will be ignored from now on, so in many ways things are getting more liberal." is perhaps one way of looking at it, although another could be that in many ways things are becoming less civilised and open to the abuse of the innocents - bullying over the web is harmful, yet will be protected under this regime of police ignorance. I do recall that one poster named a very famous tory politician as a likely candidate, before McAlpine challenged his accusers - that poster could certainly have had action taken against them. I am all in favour of the freedom of speech, but I do believe that someting should enforce the civility and decency that should accompany it; nothing ever before has been able to chronicle and reflect civilisation as does the WWW, yet it has the same capability to bring it to it's knees; certainley it can debase the way we all interact.
christ thats a bit deep....just stick allegedly after everything and you should be fine. As an example...OLM is a massive fan of Vespa ...allegedly
However, in that thread a poster had made a clear attempt at humour by stating that Marlon King had probably abused the children of any refs that he was to come up against - And that I believe is the crux of Mel's article - Before now no one would have thought anything of that nonsense throwaway comment, as the chances of anything coming from it were very remote - Lord McAlpines very public pursuing of Joe publics libel could create a culture where public or even private victims of libel see a chance to make a quick buck and our current legal system (shortly to have their ambulance chasing ways curtailed in terms of personnel injury claims) could well create an easy "we'll do everything for you" system where all you have to do is be libelled and pick up the phone.
Personally I don't think there will be a massive boom in defamation claims. They are simply too expensive. Before the wronged person can even indicate a claim they would have to apply for an injunction to obtain the names and addresses of the posters. Then there is a prescribed protocol to comply with. Not to mention seeking to find out whether the poster has any money and is therefore worth pursuing. Lord McAlpine knows how expensive and uncertain this is going to be which is why he is suggesting that tweeters who apologise and pay £5 to charity will not be pursued.
If you can get chased up, arrested and sued over comments posted on the Internet, I pray to ****ig god no fat birds ever stumble across this forum.
somebody was charged and convicted for printing a joke about that missing girl from Wales - as far as i could make out it was a similar joke that ive previously received in text about people who disappear and comparisons in how long they were missing - That was posted on his own facebook account not on a tribute page as far as i understand Put it this way . . way , im not repeating the joke . However that type of joke isnt a laugh at the victim or families its more a self comforting ritual.
It wasn't his own Facebook page, it was a Facebook page dedicated to finding the girl. And the main reason he was arrested, was because people had found out his home address and fifty of them turned up to give him a kicking.
I don't think there will need to be fundamental changes to this board. But I do wonder if linking to other sites such as twitter and facebook is a more of a problem. As OLM points out the Police have pulled back from investigationing every report. That was really part of my question, at what point does a comment become of interest to the Police? How can they decide? Yesterday I got called a puff and the other day metrosexual!!! Its a good job no one called me fat or I would have called my lawyers in! Mind you I am fat, so how could I complain, oh yes thats my point! If you call me fat and I get offended but its the truth, no case, call me a puff and I get offended and its not true (I promise), then there could be a case. Call me metrosexual and I get offended so what. The Police are making this up as they go along and that is where the danger lies. Danger Fox hit the nail on the head with his comment. I do not expect this board or others like it to change but, one day there will be a big deal made out of something posted on a site like this and then everything will change. My rule of thumb would be dont say anything on here that you would not repeat to someones face. Especially fat metrosexual puffs!
Unfortunately just saying allegedly doesn't do it .... You have to be able to demonstrate where whatever you said was alleged. You can't just say I heard it in the pub
Your thoughts can't be legislated against, so as long as you just say you think 'so and so' looks like a perv you're fine. Allegedly.
