Facebook Being Sued in Irish Courts

[mneylon]

Facebook Being Sued By JP McManus | Social Media Expert

Not a huge amount of detail, but I suspect we'll hear more in the coming days / weeks

 

[vendexo]

It will be interesting to watch how the likes of Facebook and Twitter deal with the courts in multiple countries. Privacy concerns and court orders versus the policies of a medium which crosses so many international borders.

 

[mneylon]

Governments and law enforcement are taking a much more active interest in the internet of late, so it's going to get very "interesting"

 

[vendexo]

What you do if someone signed up to this forum with the name jpmcmanus and started posting?
Should forum admins and social media sites reserve or validate certain usernames (-- administrative nightmare --)?
Do readers of postings expect that the people posting on fora are who the usernames say they are? Or are they not that naive?
Don't most visitors here know that you can choose almost any username they like (although the admins may step in if something vulgar or obscene is chosen)?

 

[mneylon]

Blocking etc., does not scale
However the key thing is how you handle a complaint when it arises.
That's the key thing.

So if someone came on here and pretended to be someone else (regardless of who it was) and I was made aware of the issue I'd have to take action.
If I ignored it I'd be liable.

It's not rocket science

And no - what "most visitors" know or don't know is irrelevant - As far as Irish law is concerned defamation is defamation regardless of where it happens (and I've had to deal with plenty of takedowns over the last few years related to my day job!)

 

[vendexo]

And wouldn't you expect that Facebook would also handle complaints in the same way?

 

[mneylon]

And wouldn't you expect that Facebook would also handle complaints in the same way?

You would, which is why it'd be interesting to get more detail of this case.

 

[Byron]

I would imagine Facebook has a one size fits all approach which might not be suitable for near billionaires and top end lawyers, their submitted a form and we'll think about it attitude has to change, especially when big money gets on their backs, all it would take is c.200 people at this scale to liquidate Facebook if they argued enough....

 

[HubberZero]

Fascinating read. Thanks.

 

[TwoHeadsWebDesign]

Yip, crux of this for me is how Facebook did/didnt fail to respond satisfactorily. We all work to abide by the rules, others break them (often getting unfair advantage) you report them via Facebooks own proper channels, and zip happens. Not much of an incentive to play by the rules. Bad show in my view. Lets see if time divulges more details.