[Air-l] wikipedia and defamation

[David Brake]

On 6 Dec 2005, at 20:03, Ulf wrote:

>  these statements are only harmful on a significant scale
> if anyone looks at them, believes them (and - in some cases - repeats
> them). The Seigenthaler episode is a good example. Being rather
> ignorant about the Who's Who in the media business I wouldn't have
> known of Seigenthaler and would never have connected him with the
> Robert Kennedy assassination

It is exactly people like Seigenthaler or you and I who are most at  
risk from defamation both on Wikipedia and blogs etc. The danger  
comes if you are just known enough to be a target to some people but  
not well-known enough to have either PR professionals or 'allies' who  
are aware of the truth about you and could deal with attacks or let  
you know about them. Why should someone like Seigenthaler have a new  
responsibility to scan the Internet every so often just to make sure  
someone with a grudge hasn't defamed them?

It's true that people should take what they read online with a pinch  
of salt but empirically I think you would find most people don't  
(could someone with the relevant information science pop in here and  
give us some relevant citations on this point?)

I am not a big David Brin supporter but I do think one of his  
proposals in The Transparent Society has some merit - that even  
people contributing online 'anonymously' should have as a backstop  
some way to be traced if they abuse that facility. IP addresses help  
here but don't provide a complete remedy.

---
David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London  
School of Economics & Political Science
<http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ 
mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm>
Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/  
(personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog)
Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ 
dealingwithemail/>
callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)




---
David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London  
School of Economics & Political Science
<http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ 
mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm>
Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/  
(personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog)
Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ 
dealingwithemail/>
callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)