Internet Defamation - Essay Example

?Internet Defamation Introduction Internet is a technology, which has put a huge impact on personal, as well as professional life of people in a very short san of time. However, with all advantages and good points about internet, there also exist some negative aspects of internet. One of such aspects is internet defamation, which harms the repute and identity of people, businesses and organizations. “Defamation can cause damage psychologically, socially and sometimes even financially”1. Internet defamation means the publication of unrealistic material about a person or an organization with the intention to harm the reputation of that person or organization. However, the publication of slanderous content on internet media is different from that of print or broadcast media. In this paper, we will discuss whether internet defamation is significantly different from print or broadcast media defamation. We will also consider some cases of online defamation in order to understand the legal points and issues regarding online defamation properly. 2. Internet Defamation and Print Media Defamation Internet defamation is significantly different from print media or broadcast defamation in a number of ways. First, internet is available to almost every individual, which he/she can use to destroy the image of other people with whom he/she may have some dispute. A person can use different types of internet-based media, such as, websites, emails, forums, blogs, and social networking websites to send libelous or slanderous messages to other people. On the other hand, access to print or broadcast media is not easy for every person and even if some criminal-minded person has an access to it, he/she has to do a lot of effort to use it for destroying the image of others. Another different between internet defamation and print or broadcast media is that of the identity of the publisher. With ease of access to the internet, everyone can use it for personal favors without revealing the identity. For example, a person can post some wrong comment about someone on social networking websites by creating a fake account. In such cases, identification of the sender of the email is very difficult because of fake accounts. Criminal-minded people make use of this internet facility to destroy the repute of other people. On the other hand, in case of print or broadcast media, identifying the source of a publication is not a difficult task because publishing authorities inquire about the source before publishing something. Therefore, it is not easy for a person to spread wrong and insulting news about some other person using print or broadcast media. If we talk about defamation in sense of publication, we can say that comments over the internet that are sent directly to a person do not fall in the category of publication because such comments are not for public. Internet defamation falls in the category of publication if some comment is posted somewhere so that everyone can read it. “Sending an email containing defamatory statements from person A to person B will in some legal systems not be regarded as "publication" for the purposes of libel law”2. 3. Laws Regarding Defamation As social networking tools are becoming more and more popular with every passing day, the number of cases of internet defamation is also increasing. To handle the increase in internet defamation, many countries have taken considerable steps through implementing libel laws and designing statues of limitations. A plaintiff is required to file the complaint within a specific time, as it is a statue of limitations. “Regardless of the merit of the defamation claim, a plaintiff must file the lawsuit within a time period specified by law”3. If we search for the implemented law for internet defamation in the United States of America, we come to know that the most relevant law against online defamation is the Defamation Section 230 of The Communications Decency Act Of 1996. Along with governments and judiciary, a number of insurance companies also offer media liability insurance policies that they design to cover their clients’ online defamation claims. 4. Reference to the Cases “Defamation of character is notoriously difficult to prove in court”4. However, there are some cases, in which plaintiffs have been successful in proving their claims. One of the cases of online defamation included a woman from Florida who was awarded nearly eleven million dollars in an online defamation lawsuit against a woman of Louisiana. The case was that Carey Bock, a Louisianan woman, posted messages about Sue Scheff, a Floridian woman, and accused her of being a fraud. The dispute between them started when Bock asked Scheff for helping her withdraws her sons from a boarding school. Scheff, who was operating a referral service at that time, referred Bock to a consultant because her job was just to make the right referrals. However, Bock did not like this action of Scheff and posted negative messages about her on Fornits.com, which is a website where parents discuss with each other the ways to deal with troubled teens5. Scheff sued Bock and got the decision in her favor. In another case, a Texas jury awarded twelve and a half million dollars to Orix Capital Markets in an online libel lawsuit that involved the statements published on Predatorix.com. Orix Capital Markets had some legal disputes with the Rafizadeh family of Houston. Orix filed a case against the family in which they claimed that the defendants created Predatorix.com and used it to publish libelous and slanderous statements about Orix. The court investigated the issue and found it true. “In February 2009, after a two-week trial, the jury awarded Orix $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages”6. 5. Conclusion Summing it up, internet defamation is the publication of false and libelous material about a person or an organization. Defamation is of two main types, which include internet defamation and print or broadcast media defamation. Although many countries have taken measures to reduce the number of internet defamation cases, still there is a need for a proper law, which can stop people from posting libelous and slanderous statements about others. Word Count: 1015 Bibliography Bayard S, ‘$12.5 Million Jury Verdict in Texas Internet Defamation Case’ (2009) accessed 24 April 2012. Edwards L, ‘Law and the Internet - Regulating Cyberspace’ (n.d.) accessed 24 April 2012. Parker L, ‘Jury awards $11.3M over defamatory Internet posts’ (2006) accessed 24 April 2012. Pollick M, ‘What is defamation of Character?’ (2012) accessed 24 April 2012. Thomson M, ‘Lawsuit - For Online Defamation’ (2012) accessed 24 April 2012. Zelezny J, Communications Law: Liberties, Restraints, and the Modern Media (6th edn, Cengage Learning, Boston 2011). Read More