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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    1

    Default Slander and Website Liability.

    Today at work something particularly frustrating happened and a coworker and I started talking about how incompetent people were. I said it would be great if there was a website where people could go and anonymously post their opinions about specific people and why they feel they are incompetent. Another friend of mine told me that it would probably be illegal to run such a site due to libel laws. My question is this... Is it possible to avoid legal liability by running a site where my intention is to offer a legitimate forum for people to post true statements and opinions about specific people, if indeed false and libelous statements may also be made? I guess my thinking would be that I would provide a disclaimer stating that by using the site, people are agreeing to only post true statements or opinions, but I don't know if this would absolve me of liability? The site would be completely anonymous, so it is possible that people would post false statements with malicious intent. The system however, would be completely automated, meaning that they just fill out a form and submit it and it would automatically update the site to reflect their "post". So, there would be no screening process, and technically, I would not neccesarily know exactly what has been posted, unless I read through every single post, and depending on how popular it is, that could be phyiscally impossible. I read somewhere about "innocent dissemination" and wondered if this would be a plausible defense due to the nature and operations of the site.

    I am not wealthy and really can not afford massive legal fees. This was just something I thought would be fun to do and offer people an outlet. So I guess I just wanted to see if anyone knew what my liability would be for operating such a site, before I decided to do it or not.

    Thank you for your time.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: Slander and Website Liability.

    You can look at existing websites which have been up for a while, and see what they are doing. Personally, I wouldn't start such a site without having a lawyer assure me that I could not be successfully sued, and without insurance to cover defense costs in case somebody sues anyway.

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