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What’s Facebook’s responsibility when the nation seeks to lynch someone?

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Re: What’s Facebook’s responsibility when the nation seeks to lynch someone?

#31

Post by dkokelley »

brianchu wrote: post #19
dkokelley wrote: post #2

I wonder what (if any) legal recourse Ryan Lanza might have against the news agencies that libeled his name. I imagine it really depends on the exact wording used, but Ryan could have a great defamation/emotional distress case on his hands, when everything settles.

In the US it is very hard to win a libel case (as the plaintiff). Basically, you have to prove that the news agencies intentionally and maliciously libeled you. This is pretty darn near impossible to prove in most cases. If I recall correctly, an example of a case where a libel lawsuit would be successful is one where the new agency makes up something or encourages a source to make up something. EDITS (replies to bel…

OK. So he was identified as the suspect. First, is there a case against the police? This is assuming that it was police recklessness/negligence and Ryan was never an actual suspect. Second, having been identified as the suspect, did any of the media outlets go on to defame him given that he was not actually tried and convicted? If XYZ News Corp receives the name from an official statement saying he is the suspect, and then runs a story accusing him of murder, does that make them libelous? I'm sure there are editorial standards about what can be said of a person between being declared a suspect and declared guilty.

Re: What’s Facebook’s responsibility when the nation seeks to lynch someone?

#32

Post by vacri »

benesch wrote: post #21
melvinmt wrote: post #15

This is why Dutch publishers are prohibited to publish last names of suspects (even after conviction). In this case it would be abbreviated to "Adam L.". They even protect the identities of the most notorious killers and terrorists (Volkert van der G., Karst T., Samir A.). The US should do the same, solves a lot of problems outlined in this article.

You'd run into quite a bit of trouble with the first amendment and freedom of the press.

Ironically, RSF places the Netherlands in #3 place of the Press Freedom Index, and the US comes in at #47.

http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2011-2012,1043.html

Re: What’s Facebook’s responsibility when the nation seeks to lynch someone?

#33

Post by vacri »

dangrossman wrote: post #5
[deleted] wrote: post #4

[deleted]

Betteridge's "law" has been mentioned on Hacker News 151 (!) times already. Thrice by you, with the requisite wiki link. Let me be the 50th to ask we stop adding this comment to every article.

It also doesn't make sense with this particular headline, which can't be answered by a yes or no.

Re: What’s Facebook’s responsibility when the nation seeks to lynch someone?

#34

Post by dkarl »

citricsquid wrote: post #10

Every time something like this happens people react in quite predictable ways, the creation of Facebook pages is one of the more common ones. Why do people do this? Does it come from social pressure to show just how angry they are with actions, is it just how people cope with terrible news (by doing something even if it's ultimately futile) or is it just another case of humans doing irrational things? My google-fu is…

I can't offer a psychological explanation, but my impression from the people I know who are the most eager to offer their opinion on the shooter is that they love it, that this is the coolest thing that happened to them this month. They'd be bored without it (or they'd be stirring up drama with their friends or co-workers.) They say they're angry, but they seem more excited and gleeful. Some people love tracking hurricanes, some people love elections, and some people love tragedies. It's a break from their boring lives, a dramatic and important occasion to share some excitement with millions of other people. Like when Princess Diana died -- suddenly a lot of people realized that she was really, really, really important to them. (Not that she wasn't important to a lot of people, but there were also plenty of people who were determined not to get left out of the excitement even though they only had a vague idea who she was.) With Princess Diana it was grief, and with Ryan/Adam Lanza it's righteous anger. People are just enjoying the hell out of it.

Re: What’s Facebook’s responsibility when the nation seeks to lynch someone?

#35

Post by Osiris »

dkokelley wrote: post #2

I wonder what (if any) legal recourse Ryan Lanza might have against the news agencies that libeled his name. I imagine it really depends on the exact wording used, but Ryan could have a great defamation/emotional distress case on his hands, when everything settles.

Could he claim copyright to the photo of himself that they used and sue them for copyright infringement? It seems like a stretch but how did they receive permission to republish that image?

Re: What’s Facebook’s responsibility when the nation seeks to lynch someone?

#36

Post by The_Egg_Man »

Osiris wrote: post #35
dkokelley wrote: post #2

I wonder what (if any) legal recourse Ryan Lanza might have against the news agencies that libeled his name. I imagine it really depends on the exact wording used, but Ryan could have a great defamation/emotional distress case on his hands, when everything settles.

Could he claim copyright to the photo of himself that they used and sue them for copyright infringement? It seems like a stretch but how did they receive permission to republish that image?

Does he even own that image? I thought once it was uploaded to Facebook it became property of Facebook.

Re: What’s Facebook’s responsibility when the nation seeks to lynch someone?

#37

Post by benesch »

vacri wrote: post #32
benesch wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd run into quite a bit of trouble with the first amendment and freedom of the press.

Ironically, RSF places the Netherlands in #3 place of the Press Freedom Index, and the US comes in at #47. http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2011-2012,1043.html

The US's fall from #20 is largely a result of arrests of reporters attempting to document the Occupy movement.

While freedom of the press in the US may be violated pragmatically, you'd have a much harder time challenging it philosophically. That is, police offers arresting individual reporters (especially ones involved in protest) slips by relatively easily, but a federal law placing limits on what information the press can publish would receive strong opposition.

Re: What’s Facebook’s responsibility when the nation seeks to lynch someone?

#38

Post by philmcc »

uiri wrote: post #12

>(Gawker also changed its story, but proof of the original headline is still in the URL) You can put anything in the URL you like, as long as the number matches and it passes whatever regular expression gawker runs on those URLs, it will point to the right news story. Hardly conclusive proof that gawker changed the headline when someone can do something like http://gawker.com/5968551/ryan-lanza-is-a-cold-blooded-murd…

Well, I think the idea is that the link Gawker released initially was the one that got passed around the most and posted on facebook page, twitter, etc. ( I know I posted it. )

As a result, I believe that would also be the URL that ranks highest in a Google search.

Regardless of what text gets added after the number so to an extent, for popular posts, whichever title Gawker releases first will be set in stone.

I'm not very familiar with regexes so I don't really understand why they would need one on the URL. It seems you can drop the string part of that "suffix" altogether.

Re: What’s Facebook’s responsibility when the nation seeks to lynch someone?

#39

Post by SoftwareMaven »

The_Egg_Man wrote: post #36
Osiris wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could he claim copyright to the photo of himself that they used and sue them for copyright infringement? It seems like a stretch but how did they receive permission to republish that image?

Does he even own that image? I thought once it was uploaded to Facebook it became property of Facebook.

It's not Facebook's property; they just get an unlimited license to reproduce it in order to provide their service. For organizations that are not Facebook, I'm sure the situation is much more murky.

Re: What’s Facebook’s responsibility when the nation seeks to lynch someone?

#40

Post by zalew »

melvinmt wrote: post #15

This is why Dutch publishers are prohibited to publish last names of suspects (even after conviction). In this case it would be abbreviated to "Adam L.". They even protect the identities of the most notorious killers and terrorists (Volkert van der G., Karst T., Samir A.). The US should do the same, solves a lot of problems outlined in this article.

> Dutch publishers are prohibited to publish last names of suspects (even after conviction)

In Poland similarily, but it's applied only at the moment he's officially charged and lifted after convinction. Also they cover the eyes on pics, etc.. It's hilarious when famous people get acccused of something ("ex deputy prime minister Andrzej L.", "famous journalist and tv and radio star Kuba W.").

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