I was wondering what people think about the merits of the suit (personally, I don’t think they ever thought they’d win, I think they thought they’d use the courts to threaten the kid), and what people might think about this being a precursor to a trend.
I know we’ve seen other internet campaigns against companies, people, etc. before, but with social networking sites, anyone can set up a clearinghouse for information that can disseminate the information instantly to anyone else, worldwide, who wants it. Campaigns thus are, IMO, going to be able to stay focused, and stay tightly focused on their goals. And their going to be able to garner support like never before. I have a hard time imagining that in 1990 I’d have ever heard about 1 college kid in Kalamazoo’s car being towed; now it’s just a click away.
Is, or will, this be seen as a net positive or negative to our (slowly) emerging global society? Will it help foment or obstruct change?
Personally, I think it rocks. It’s the information age equivalent of a gun: it helps level the playing field so that the strong can’t as easily prey on the weak.
Calling lawyers - please tell me whether the kid is liable for the accuracy of content created by others that ends up displayed on his site. Begin truthful is a defense against libel and slander (and since when can you be both at once?), but supposing somebody else posted lies about the company on his site, would he be in some way liable?
If Justin and others who post on his Facebook page are lying, then of course the tow truck company should win. But how do you prove it. And with so many people commenting it’s hard to say if they’re legitimate gripes or people jumping on a bandwagon. And sure, there should be protection for the little guy, but then again it’s easy to have a bunch of people make false allegations against good company too.
With that many people complaining it seems like there might be something to it. But then again it could be mob mentality where everybody is just going along. Who knows.
You know, I’m thinking that if he his own account about any problems he had with this company first, and then had a disclaimer that the posters themselves that follow are solely responsible for what they write and that any readers can make their own mind up about what they wish to believe, then I don’t feel that any libel (published on the internet) exists.
At the end of the day, it’s probably Facebook that would make the decision to let the page stay or pull the plug on it.
There are whole websites out there that have to do with consumers’ opinions of companies and services, for example, Yelp.
I could be wrong here, but IIRC, a forum-type website is only itself liable for libel or slander if they moderate or edit the forums. A forum that just allows people to post without exercising editorial control has no liability for the comments of individuals posters, AFAIK.
My understanding is this: if the site is a passive conduit for information with no knowledge of what is being posted or control over what is posted, they have no liability at all. However, even if a forum is moderated or edited, it is generally still not liable for defamatory posts. The mods discuss this topic about once a year because the non-lawyers among us have trouble keeping the details straight. If you mention it around Gfactor his eye twitches a little.
I think it’s a nuisance lawsuit that they should not win, and probably will not. The towing company sounds like a shitty business.
They can get all kinds of attention, but the bigger a group or movement gets, the harder it is to stay focused. Honestly, unless you’re in the Kalamazoo area, it doesn’t matter very much if you hear about this guy and click ‘Like.’ It matters if they lose potential customers and get a bad reputation, though. For a larger business, a nationwide Facebook campaign would be more of an issue because they have more to lose. Broad support for a campaign against a local business might not matter, but the potential of news coverage for the campaign does matter.
Does it have to be just one? I think we’ve seen a lot of what social networks and online campaigns can do, and the responses they can get. We also know it can be used for astroturfing and similar things.
In some ways, yes. In others I think it gets used the same way any other tool does.
I can’t add to the debate, but this story makes me smile. That towing company has been scummy for a long, long time. I went to WMU (duh, username) and heard stories about them every week in class.
:dubious: