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What is the UK law on 'anonymous' libels published online?
If I write to a UK newspaper the paper's lawyer will check it out for anything actionable because if the paper published the letter they would become become liable for any libel it contained. But I can comment on Yahoo news stories "anonymously" and allege all sorts of things against named or easily identifiable people. We had one on Yahoo alleging that a girl who had her jail sentence quashed had slept with the judge to achieve that, Now that is libel in anybody's book and in the UK it could be a criminal libel because there is a deliberate intent to do harm to two reputations.
How is this possible? How can 'trolls' get away with it?
If a libelled person demanded that Yahoo compensate them for publishing the libel what would Yahoo's defence be? Could Yahoo be forced to reveal the troll's identity?
A lot of questions - sorry!
Edit:- would hope that a Court Order could force an ISP to release the identity of a harmful contributor but I see no evidence of this happening.
A paper takes responsibility for what it publisihes. They won't print an anonymous letter. The name can be withheld but they do need to know it and an address. It still looks like an ISP doesn't and that bothers me.
3 Answers
- Shin NoharaLv 610 years agoFavourite answer
>>Implying that a court order couldn't get the IP address for a particular commenter
>>Implying that then a lawyer couldn't get the address for said IP from an ISP
>>Implying that just because you don't use your name you are anonymous
>>Implying there isn't a law in the UK that requires ISPs to keep a record of your internet history for 6 months
- Anonymous5 years ago
hi, an extremely exciting question. i think of the wording interior the criticisms might desire to be analysed. working example if somebody says "they have been incorrect to leave the youngsters unattended and that they might desire to be prosecuted for it." it is not libelous because of fact it incredibly is a typical genuine actuality that the youngsters have been left on my own in a locked construction, the latter area of the assertion is a ensuing criminal opinion, no longer a assertion of of alleged info. the topics of alleged conspiracies on the area of the mothers and dads could be libelous provided they are in a position to show some injury or loss and are dealt with in a diverse way or spurned with the aid of others as an instantaneous consequence of that assertion. this could be complicated to show interior the sunshine of the genuine statements that have been made with regards to leaving the youngsters interior the 1st place. a sturdy debateable question although and the factor you're making is a moot factor.
- Anonymous10 years ago
It's the internet. Trolls get away with it is hard to track down people and verify everything. If you had to put your phone number and home address down before posting anything, there would be no trolls. I'm sure if someone complained incessantly about it and had Rupert Murdoch levels of money to get out of Parliament unscathed, then I'm sure someone could hunt down trolls.
