Internet trolls targeted in new bill to tackle defamation online (UK)

Source: UK Press Association

Major reforms of the libel laws will see a duty placed on internet service providers to try to identify internet trolls without victims needing to resort to costly legal action.

Websites will also be given greater protection from being sued if they help to identify those posting defamatory messages, under government plans.

The defamation bill, which will be debated in the Commons on Tuesday, will also see would-be claimants having to show they have suffered serious harm to their reputations, or are likely to do so, before they can take a defamation case forward.

The justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, said: "As the law stands, individuals can be the subject of scurrilous rumour and allegation on the web with little meaningful remedy against the person responsible...

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/jun/12/internet-trolls-bill-defamation-online

Fortunately, the US has a 1st amendment to guard against hyper-criminalization of society like European hate speech laws and the wide reaching British libel laws.

4 replies, 1486 views

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4 replies	Author	Time	Post
Internet trolls targeted in new bill to tackle defamation online (UK) (Original post)	alp227	Jun 2012	OP
7 proxies.	boppers	Jun 2012	#1
Basically yes	T_i_B	Jun 2012	#2
I think it sounds a bit better than the current situation	muriel_volestrangler	Jun 2012	#3
What happens when British people say mean things about other British people on a US-based website?	Nye Bevan	Jun 2012	#4

Response to alp227 (Original post)

Tue Jun 12, 2012, 04:17 AM

boppers (16,588 posts)

1. 7 proxies.

It's a useless law, and useless idea.

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Response to boppers (Reply #1)

Tue Jun 12, 2012, 07:12 AM

T_i_B (11,185 posts)

2. Basically yes

Our government is fond of this sort of nonsense, and the previous government was to boot.

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Response to T_i_B (Reply #2)

Tue Jun 12, 2012, 10:29 AM

muriel_volestrangler (65,375 posts)

3. I think it sounds a bit better than the current situation

At the moment, the knee-jerk reaction of ISPs (or those running websites with comments/members) is just to take something down at the first hint of legal involvement. This sounds as if it's going to allow them to say "here's the person who wrote it - sort it out with them". And this sounds better too:

The bill will also replace the common law defences of justification and honest comment with new statutory defences of truth and honest opinion.

The so-called Reynolds defence of responsible journalism published in the public interest also gets statutory recognition as responsible publication on a matter of public interest.

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Response to alp227 (Original post)

Tue Jun 12, 2012, 10:31 AM

Nye Bevan (10,897 posts)

4. What happens when British people say mean things about other British people on a US-based website?

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