Category: 
July 19, 2009
In Twitter Power, I described blogs as one aspect of the social media revolution. I think that might have surprised some people. Blogs, after all, pre-date the kind of interaction that we can see on Facebook and LinkedIn. They’re more like old-fashioned publishing, in which information comes down from a publisher instead of being created and shared by contributors.
But there is one aspect of blogging that’s often forgotten by Internet publishers, and it’s incredibly valuable.
At the bottom of each blog post is a space for readers to add their own comments to what you’ve written.
Those comments are as important for the publishers as they are for the readers.
Horaayy..there are 4 comment(s) for me so far ;)
blogging and libel laws?. has any libel action been taken in relation to comments made in an Internet blog?
In the case of an anonymous blog, what powers at present do courts in the United kingdom, have to demand information from the Internet server ?.
not that i know. i think that it would be considered heresay and would not be admissable in court because you have not witnessed in person who is writing.
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but it’s like graffiti, who you going to charge? the guy that owns the wall it’s on? oh, they do that sometimes, don’t they?
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I don’t think you have to witness the act of writing to prove libel. The standard of proof in civil matters is "on the balance of probability" (not "beyond reasonable doubt" as in criminal cases.) Therefore, the plaintiff merely has to satisfy the court that it was IN ALL LIKELIHOOD the defendant who wrote the blog. If it is on his account, then he is responsible for its content and can be reasonably assumed to have been written and published by him.
I am not sure if such a case has ever reached court, but Foot Ansteys solicitors website details such a case settled out of court.
I think the issues are WHO is responsible for the libel – the blogger or the website publisher? Was the website the publisher? Did the website take reasonable step to prevent defamation being published? Was the website aware of the defamation?
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