Internet liable law
History:
There are two websites. Lets call them "the onion site" and "the cauliflower site". People posting on The Onion get upset with a certain moderator. Lets call him Turnip. Turnip lets his friends get away with all sorts on the forum, but if people retaliate against his friends they get banned. Posters get fed up with Turnip's attitude and set up The Cauliflower site.
Cauliflower site exists for some time, then Turnip registers. At first the Cauliflower mods think it really is Turnip as the posts sound normal.
Then Turnip posts a thread saying he enjoys anal sex, which the other posters find amusing. At this point it is still not know if this is the Turnip from the other site or not but the mods suspect it is someone having a joke at Turnips expense.
The following morning, the real Turnip gets in touch with the site admin through his works email address and threatens the site owner with libel action due to the anal sex comment.
Would Turnip have a valid libel case? His real life name has never been mentioned on the forum, just the name Turnip and the Onion site has never been linked to.
Dear JessTurnip might have a
Dear Jess
Turnip might have a valid claim for libel but probably would not suceed in these circumstances.
There are a number of valid defences to such cases.
The owners of a website might be liable for defamatory remarks posted on the site if they knew or had reason to be suspicious that the remarks were defamatory when they were published by them.
I suspect in these circumstances that the owners would not have known that the poster was not who he said he was. A liable action is in any event often akin to using a sledge hammer to crack a nut.
The post should be removed, the poster barred and an apology offerred. If Turnip wishes to be vindicated an action might be brought but the ensuing publicity itself may be considered to do more harm than good. If he wishes to see revenge , to stop it from happening again or to obtain damages an action in Libel is not the best option.
i would suggest that the Moderators of the website monitor it extremely closely and remove any comments of a similar nature about anyone even if they believe the poster to be talking about themselves.
Richard Paremain