How to deal with legal threats for forum owners
Posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 9:50pm. #
So, I’ve run (for a long time) a media discussion board. Occasionally I have the odd complaint in vaguely threatening legal terms: along the lines of “Someone’s saying stuff about me that I don’t like. How dare you let anonymous people post nasty stuff about me. I want you to remove this, right now, otherwise I’ll tell my solicitors to take further action.” (In fact, Media UK doesn’t accept anonymous discussion users; but I’m fleshing this out to help this blog posting).
So - how would you deal with it? If you asked my advice, I’d tell you the following:
For media discussion boards at least, it’s not generally held to be libellous to say that someone’s rubbish at being a TV presenter. Theatre critics and reviewers are generally said not to libel an actor by critiquing his work (though there are some exceptions to this). Further, by removing stuff just because that presenter doesn’t like it is dangerous. You might be tacitly agreeing with him that you’ve published libel.
So, first, reply confidently to point out that criticism is not libel. Ask the complainant to tell you what page they’re complaining about (they’ll need to be specific, and it’ll help you). Go through the posts and remove any that are a bit iffy. “He sounds shit” is not normally libellous. “He’s a twat to work with” however probably is. (If you do remove any, reply by saying that in your opinion nothing was libellous, however you’ve removed some posts that you felt didn’t come up to the normal standard of debate. Thank him for drawing it to your attention. Never admit to libel. Oooh, no.)
Make it clear that you do not moderate posts before publication: important because this, in many cases, can lessen your legal risk. Similarly, offer the complainant a right of reply.
Never reveal user details without a court order, naturally. But, mail the user who’s slagged this guy off, make it clear that you’ve had a serious legal complaint made about his post, reassure him that his identity is safe and that you’re fighting on his behalf. This will stop further posts and make a friend - and possibly that user will request his emails are deleted anyway, in which case you can let the complainant know.
All the above should result in any potential legal worry going away. It’s worked for me. But remember - I am not a lawyer. Seek help if it’s looking nasty.
And here endeth the lesson. Rubbish jokes and postings about beer will follow shortly. This posting was brought to you thanks to a small bottle of Leffe Tripel, the only type of Leffe that’s bottle-conditioned.
Photo: Brooke Novak. Used under licence.
Ben Perreau said at January 31st, 2008 at 4:25pm 
