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Twitter 'troll' to pay six-figure sum

bbc.co.uk

251–256 of 256 posts

Re: Twitter 'troll' to pay six-figure sum

#251

The title isn't a reasonable one: the very prejudicial descriptor 'troll' is language from lawyers from one side of a legal dispute. The BBC isn't credibly a neutral arbiter, because the litigant is one of their presenters. This is not taking any position on the underlying dispute (which is apparently about Northern Ireland politics [0]), nor is it a criticism of or specific to the BBC. [0] This Reddit discussion (pr…

Pretty shocking that for all the discussion of this news article, yours is the only comment that looked into the actual "defamatory claims", and it seems the only one we have access to... was factually true (but heavily editorialized). Incredible how the narrative can get swayed so easily on the basis of no evidence, or in contradiction to the evidence.

More essentially (IMHO), it's not a claim of fact that originates with the speaker. It's commentary on a publicly disclosed set of facts ("contents of the BBC show that aired on Feburary 3"), that both writer and readers are familiar with.

In the US at least, it's categorically impossible for this fact pattern to be defamatory -- regardless if the claims are true or false. You can't tortiously mislead an intelligent person by discussing a TV program *that you've both watched*.

Re: Twitter 'troll' to pay six-figure sum

#252
post #13

Reading the article is important here. The person that was being sued is settling (paying a 6-figure sum) and staying anonymous. They could have fought they case, but they apparently had enough money and were worried about being outed, that it was worth just paying and hiding.

Or - something else happened. The plaintiff is a radio presenter, and it's easy to Google him. It's one thing to make a personally defamatory accusation. It's something else to launch a high profile libel trial with alleged political overtones in a very tense and scarred part of the world with recent riots. Clearly, we're not going to get the full details of this story.

Most people don't have the 6figure sum and lawyers to get off anonymous. Scared or not they are a wealthy twitter troll.

Re: Twitter 'troll' to pay six-figure sum

#253
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you're giving a great summary of these stories. The first two are related to personal defamation: * Police horse and dog: people could be arrested for "threatening, abusive or insulting" speech in public at the time. The police, being wankers, overused their discretion on "insulting" speech and so the law was changed in 2013 to remove "insulting" as a criterion. https://newsfeed.time.com/2013/01/16/you-…

Thanks for the details, I was mentioning them from memory as well as eliding some details for brevity (though none that I thought changed the nature of my point). > Police horse and dog: people could be arrested for "threatening, abusive or insulting" speech in public at the time. The police, being wankers, overused their discretion on "insulting" speech and so the law was changed in 2013 to remove "insulting" as a c…

Thanks for expanding more on your reasons for including each of the examples.

> Though I don't think the reason you left these out is because you're trying to mislead: your focus was "why people were angry", and mine was "how absurd the incidents are to the sensibilities of citizens of a country with robust speech protections".

Yes, I agree that every summary will necessarily leave parts out. I disagree with your editorial judgment on how to summarize these incidents as evidence to whether the courts are going too far:

- Police horse and dog: missing context that the law was changed almost a decade ago to remove "insulting" as a criterion because these instances were so absurd.

- Nazi dog: did not mention that it's a public video, did not mention the quotes which were most important to the court ruling it "Hate Speech". You're focused entirely on "it's a joke" as an explanation to why the quotes are okay in context.

- Lyrics: did not mention the text of the lyrics, only the fact that they were quotes. When you quote something, you're giving it a different context. For example, quoting "I'll be back" means different things when one's at a grocery vs when one's stalking someone at their house. Snap Dogg (not Snoop, though that mistake's super understandable) singing the lyric in a song is different from quoting the lyric in a conversation is different from quoting just that lyric in isolation.

- Anti-religious: the venue mattered because it plays a part in whether regular behavior is harassment. This sounds like an honest mistake, but I think the venue drastically changes the situation. One saying "I think X sucks" is different when: one's with some friends; one's discussing X's work with acquaintances; one's on a panel with X at a conference; one's at X's wedding; one sends mail to X's house.

> Whether or not people get angry is immaterial to my point: your focus was "why people were angry", and mine was "how absurd the incidents are to the sensibilities of citizens of a country with robust speech protections".

I think that you left out context which changes "how absurd" these cases are. The first 2 were essentially fixed. The last 3 were all prosecuted under "Hate Speech", but I think you left out the important aspects of those cases which made them count as "Hate Speech". Sometimes the reason why something is illegal is patently absurd and doesn't really to be addressed in the summary, but I don't think this context could be avoided when trying to claim that these 3 speech restrictions were absurd.

Re: Twitter 'troll' to pay six-figure sum

#254
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in the “libertarian” camp on this. But now looking at all the damage caused (including killings in India on false social media rumors) I certainly think “mainstreaming of social media” is warranted. For one remove anonymity from social media. That in itself should clean up half this mess with existing laws.

> For one remove anonymity from social media. That in itself should clean up half this mess with existing laws. And it should also enable going after people with unpopular opinions even more. And preventing people from spreading disinformation doesn't mean that the disinformation will magically go away. It's just that the only people allowed to spread disinformation will be the government and the capitalists. And you…

People going after people for unpopular opinions is a society problem. Did that happen in the US or Europe before Twitter? It did not.

I see this touted a lot. But supporting trolls to spread disinformation online isn’t protecting free speech. Free speech protection comes from society and it’s laws. Not anonymity.

Re: Twitter 'troll' to pay six-figure sum

#255
post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the ancestor has a point, sort of. England conquered Wales, Scotland, and a bunch of other parts of the Earth, and only grudgingly became the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". Historically, its relationship with everyone else in Britain, much less the rest of the world, have been somewhat strained. By the way, any news on the Scottish independence thing?

England didn't annex Scotland after an invasion. Scotland agreed to a union after their economy got rekt by a failed colonisation scheme and a famine.

If anything it was the other way round - the Scottish king took over the English throne

Re: Twitter 'troll' to pay six-figure sum

#256
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WTF are you on about "occupying nation"

England is occupying part of Ireland. I have no personal opinion about this, or links to Ireland, but it seems pretty obvious to anyone looking at it from the outside.

California is ocuppying part of Dakota. I have no personal opinion about this, or links to Dakota, but it seems pretty obvious to anyone looking at it from the outside.
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