Comments on: Facebook: how to defame someone without really trying http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/07/facebook-how-to-defame-someone-without-really-trying/ now with extra source Sun, 12 Feb 2012 09:16:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Stilgherrian http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/07/facebook-how-to-defame-someone-without-really-trying/#comment-3727 Stilgherrian Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-3727 Has Greg Barns just noticed that people can write stuff on "teh internetz", and others can read it? Even if it's not true? Welcome to the 21st Century! Some of us have been here for a few years now and have noticed that social media websites aren't really publishers like newspapers, but venues like cafes and pubs. We hold our conversations there — the same insulting, outrageous, insightful, inane or fun conversations we've always had — but now they're also public and "on the record". It's a very different world. Society will need to develop new rules for interation where everything is ephemeral and permanent and instantly available to all, all at the same time. But a moral-panic screech that we need to be able to sue someone, and introduce insanely draconian monitoring because someone might say something someone else won't like, is not the way to do it. Has Greg Barns just noticed that people can write stuff on “teh internetz”, and others can read it? Even if it’s not true? Welcome to the 21st Century! Some of us have been here for a few years now and have noticed that social media websites aren’t really publishers like newspapers, but venues like cafes and pubs. We hold our conversations there — the same insulting, outrageous, insightful, inane or fun conversations we’ve always had — but now they’re also public and “on the record”. It’s a very different world. Society will need to develop new rules for interation where everything is ephemeral and permanent and instantly available to all, all at the same time. But a moral-panic screech that we need to be able to sue someone, and introduce insanely draconian monitoring because someone might say something someone else won’t like, is not the way to do it.

]]> By: Adam Jasper http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/07/facebook-how-to-defame-someone-without-really-trying/#comment-3728 Adam Jasper Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-3728 Read this article with increasing skepticism that climaxed with hilarity with the line "vetting the material on their sites day in and day out". It hinges on a small problem of scale. According to the Silicon Valley Insider, ( http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/6/facebook_catches_myspace ) the combined population of both sites is in the order of 200 million unique users. That's a hell of a lot of user generated material to individually vet, Greg. Or have you already sketched out an algorithm for detecting generic libel?<br /><br />I'm much more concerned about politicians and organisations sanitising their Wikipedia entries (a problem that *could* be systematically addressed) than about fake profiles of Cardinal George Pell depicted copulating with a dugong on MySpace. Read this article with increasing skepticism that climaxed with hilarity with the line “vetting the material on their sites day in and day out”. It hinges on a small problem of scale. According to the Silicon Valley Insider, ( http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/6/facebook_catches_myspace ) the combined population of both sites is in the order of 200 million unique users. That’s a hell of a lot of user generated material to individually vet, Greg. Or have you already sketched out an algorithm for detecting generic libel?

I’m much more concerned about politicians and organisations sanitising their Wikipedia entries (a problem that *could* be systematically addressed) than about fake profiles of Cardinal George Pell depicted copulating with a dugong on MySpace.

]]> By: Adam Jasper http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/07/facebook-how-to-defame-someone-without-really-trying/#comment-3729 Adam Jasper Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-3729 N.B.<br /><br />1. errata: Silicon Alley* Insider<br /><br />P.S.<br /><br />2. see the entry for "Cebu City" in the Philippines for an excellent example of what stubborn bureaucratic manipulation of wikipedia achieves. From the wikipedia entry, one would think it was the next Singapore. No mention of two hundred vigilante killings by police in 2005-2006, nor any note in "geography" that the city is about to run out of water. And this is a trivial case. N.B.

1. errata: Silicon Alley* Insider

P.S.

2. see the entry for “Cebu City” in the Philippines for an excellent example of what stubborn bureaucratic manipulation of wikipedia achieves. From the wikipedia entry, one would think it was the next Singapore. No mention of two hundred vigilante killings by police in 2005-2006, nor any note in “geography” that the city is about to run out of water. And this is a trivial case.

]]> By: mike smith http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/07/facebook-how-to-defame-someone-without-really-trying/#comment-3730 mike smith Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-3730 A newspaper apology for something that appeared on the internet? Some people Just Don't Get It. The people that read Facebook, the internet, etc, probably don't even read newspapers (unless they've ordered fish and chips). Stilgherrian is spot on.<br /><br />As for handing over the id of who posted what, I don't think you've thought that through. You don't want that to be easily accessed. A newspaper apology for something that appeared on the internet? Some people Just Don’t Get It. The people that read Facebook, the internet, etc, probably don’t even read newspapers (unless they’ve ordered fish and chips). Stilgherrian is spot on.

As for handing over the id of who posted what, I don’t think you’ve thought that through. You don’t want that to be easily accessed.

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