Slashdot Mirror
Mother Sues After Bebo Story Hits Press
slick_shoes notes a story out of England: a woman named Amanda Hudson is suing six national newspapers for defamation and breach of privacy after they ran stories based on her 15-year-old daughter's exaggerated claims about her party, published on her Bebo site. The party was held at the family's £4m villa in Spain, and the daughter's account claimed that jewelery had been stolen and furniture and a television set thrown into the swimming pool; in addition there were claims of sex and drug use. The mother says that this was all falsehood and exaggeration. A number of newspapers picked up claims and photos from Bebo and ran them nationally. From the article: "The case is expected to have far-reaching consequences for third parties who use or publish information from social networking sites. Lawyers say it could place a duty on all second-hand users to establish the truth of everything they want to republish from such sites."
That reminds me of how Fox News is constantly discussing crazy online rumors as if they were credible facts.
'Reports say that Obama has a taste for kittens! What a devastating blow to his campaign! Surely he will lose ground in the animal rights voting bloc. We'll cover this next on our 3 hour special "Barack-uriosity Killed the Cat."'
Hannity comes in: "So is the cat out of the bag on the Obama campaign? MySpace reports....." and so on and so forth
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
Bebo Babe's Barcelona Bash: Burglary, Buggery, Breaking
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
Although it's true the papers should have fact-checked... isn't the daughter ultimately the one responsible for the false information? I guess suing one's own, minor, daughter probably doesn't make the same ch-ching sound.
A stopped clock is occasionally right.
Do you find that when you say that face to face, people nod as if they agree with you, then their eyes sort of glaze over, then they start glancing at their watch and ... umm, gotta go - dental appointment!
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
You are argueing with someone that cannot get through 3 words without swearing about what is insightful??? You will not last long here :-))
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.