I've never been sued and I've never sued anyone but I've heard it's not a pleasant experience on any level, especially if your name or brand is involved. The net has opened up a landscape compared to the wild frontier when discussing libel and defamation and has given people the opportunity and a voice that is getting many into trouble. Freedom of speech is that inalienable right for all, especially if you watch American movies with heroes standing behind the free speech door pointing out their right to say anything and then print it. If it ever gets to libel and defamation then there was always a payout and retraction, maybe even an editorial apology. The thing with print media, compared to today's communication avenues, is that it ended up at the bottom of the bird cage, was used as wrapping paper for university kids moving house or as land fill and as a consequence seemed to disappear, eventually.
Today's communication however, is here forever, and that fact has caused great consternation for many in the legal game who suggest that libel cases from online posts at social networks, tweets and web attacks have doubled in the last year. Seems the very nature of open content and anonymous contributors is creating a whole new branch of the legal system as lawyers expert in "online law", still to be agreed upon by many nations, are now as common as the "social media expert".
Two countries at extreme ends of legal doctrine are the US and the UK. In the US articles are true until proven otherwise, whereas in the UK they need to go through all sorts of regulatory tests to prove their authenticity before they can be published. Both sides contain great complexity as the truth can be glazed over, hidden and generally disregarded depending on how you research as in the UK case and how forthright you want to be in the US case.
The UK has gone to the extremes of providing "super injunctions" that enable people to in effect gag publishers from printing what they might consider defamatory content. The US continues with its freedom of speech platform but being the litigious country it is, there will no doubt be online laws before we know it.
Many consider a quick remedy to be stricter controlling of the tools used, ie, the web platforms. The open nature, especially of the social platforms, is so large that is seems an impossible task when people can now find unlimited ways to "slag" someone, a company or even an event. Anonymity is the greatest challenge and it's unlikely that this will be solved as trust and honesty take a back seat to people using the online forums to say what they don't have the fortitude to say face to face. Blaming the tools does not diminish the integrity required whenever someone posts an opinion or viewpoint.
It may not be resolved until some of the big players like Facebook, Google or Twitter face prosecution for defamatory and libelous content. With all the money in the universe behind these players such a scenario could take decades in court, all the while the mores or society become less about privacy and more about an openess where individuals will have to fend for themselves. Looks like we might all need law degrees or at least know a good online lawyer. Maybe we can do an online course for online law?
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