I reside in the state of VA; however, my questions concern harassment in interactions on the Internet and other parties who may reside elsewhere.
What is harassment on an Internet discussion forum? What is harassment via email?
As a site admin, I have witnessed that some people seem to view differences of opinion as "harassment."
As a site admin, I have had people contact me to "punish" another member because they did not like the way that person disagreed with their opinion.
It's easy enough for me to understand that the two examples above are people lashing out in anger. But other situations are not so clear for me...
Question 1: If I have a difference of opinion with another person via email and I ask them not to contact me again or tell them they will not hear from me again. If they contact me repeatedly to tell me not to contact them. - are they harassing me?
This actually happened to me..communications were shortened / simplified for this example:
Me-I am done with discussing this issue. You will not be hearing from me again. Good luck.
Other Party-"But my point of view is correct! If you contact me again - I'll contact my attorney!"...
Me-((message returned as undeliverable from my end))
Other Party-"Did you get my email?! I am contacting you again to let you know that if you contact me again, I'll sue you for harassment!"
Me-((message returned as undeliverable from my end))
The person in the example above (who was banned from the forum) tried to access the forum every 25 to 45 minutes between 3 a.m. & 11 p.m. EST every day for 18 days. Eventually they went away. Interestingly the person is a LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) who assists other people with mental health issues.
Question 2: What have I missed in the situation below?
Background-Again, I am a site admin. A member of my site (June) met a member of my site (Penny) on LinkedIn. June and Penny corresponded very cordially and started to get to know each other on LinkedIn. June and Penny decided they wanted to discuss a book on a sensitive topic but LinkedIn does not allow for anonymity. Penny asked us if we could help; There are private discussion areas at my site. I obliged. Penny posted invitations in a few LinkedIn groups inviting others to join in the book discussion to get things going and, of course, sent June a special invitation to my site to participate in a book discussion too. At the same time we set up the book discussion in a private area of our site. We also sent out emails to all of our eligible members letting them know about the book discussion.
June contacted a site admin to say she did not understand how to navigate the site or use the forum buttons. Site admin asked Penny to help June out since Penny invited June to the site. Penny and June got together on the phone and Penny gave June a quick tour of the site and how to use the buttons. Shortly after this, Penny and June began posting to the book discussion. Soon after that June told Penny she was nervous that so far they were the only two people actively posting to the discussion but she could tell people were reading the discussion. June said she was afraid that people would read her comments in the discussion and use them against her especially if they came over from LinkedIn - apparently June had enemies on LinkedIn. June indicated that people were "looking for info" to use against her. Penny requested that we address that issue, so we restricted access to the area of the site where the book discussion resides in a way which would force any new members who had just joined our site for the book discussion to participate periodically or lose access. June said she thought it was an adequate solution. We don't normally fight lurking in this way because it reduces site traffic, but we did that for June and then she suddenly stopped participating. When Penny contacted June via our private messaging system to ask why she stopped participating, she received no answer so she contacted June on LinkedIn when she saw her actively posting there.
June and Penny exchanged words of disagreement on LinkedIn about the issue of June not participating. Penny asked June not to contact her again...Penny stated that she would neither read nor respond to any messages from June - but it did not stop there. June posted the complete private exchange from LinkedIn along with Penny's full name directly onto my website. Of course we removed the post and banned June.
This is where things get very confusing...strange.
June contacted my site via email claiming that she posted the private communications from LinkedIn along with Penny's full name at our site (which was a violation of our Registration Agreement and Community Guidelines) as a "warning" because she believed Penny to be an "Internet Predator." We responded explaining that "outting" someone in the way that she did was (ironically) the classic behavior of an Internet Bully / Predator. June retorted with all sorts of "evidence" against Penny - saying that Penny behaved oddly during their private phone calls and on LinkedIn, Penny attacked people on LinkedIn, Penny attacked a woman in a discussion on our site about another sensitive topic, and Penny was just an all around bad person.
We stood our ground on the fact that June posted personally identifiable info and private messages in violation of our forum rules.
June then created PDF files of private messages that she and Penny had exchanged on LinkedIn when they were still friendly - of course now they are being presented as "evidence" of Penny's nefarious behavior & evil intentions towards other people on the World Wide Web. June also stated that we were wrong to remove her comment and we would be legally liable if Penny harmed anyone else because we removed her comment and as a consequence failed to warn our members about Penny. June also accused my site of violating her privacy by asking Penny to help her with learning to use the site. June told us that she was considering posting a something about Penny on LinkedIn too.
I am only posting this because June is a lawyer with 20 years of experience in trademark & intellectual property (her words) and she seems to be very confident with what she is saying. She also contacts us with volumes & volumes of prose; however, her reasoning makes no sense to me - but I am not a lawyer. My stance is
1) June violated the Registration Agreement (which she digitally signed when she joined us) & Community Guidelines by posting Penny's full name and private messages without Penny's permission on my site. The comment was removed and June was banned.
2) We can't act on arguments or disagreements that happen outside of our site.
June cannot see that from my perspective she is the only one who acted in a harassing manner by her actions. She digitally signed a Registration Agreement which she then violated by posting that comment...or, maybe I am missing something. Like I said she's a lawyer and I am not.
My last communication to June's most recent lengthy email was:
We haven't heard from June since this morning but I am still a bit nervous about this & I have no idea what she'll do next. Is there anything else I need to be doing?Quote:
We are unable to manage exchanges which take place on other Internet sites.
From our perspective, we removed content from our site which violated our Registration Agreement and our Community Guidelines.
We consider this matter closed.