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Yale Students' Lawsuit Unmasks Anonymous Trolls

palegray.net writes "Two female Yale law school students have used the courts to ascertain the identities of otherwise anonymous posters to an Internet forum, with the intent of prosecuting them for hateful remarks left on the boards. At a minimum, the posters' future legal careers are certainly jeopardized by these events. While I'm not certainly not supporting or encouraging hateful speech online, these controversial actions hold potentially far-reaching consequences for Internet privacy policy and free speech." According to the linked Wired Law article, "The women themselves have gone silent, and their lawyers — two of whom are now themselves being sued — are not talking to the press."

10 of 668 comments (clear)

  1. Is their gender relevant? by pembo13 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I scanned through the article, and saw no indications that it was or wasn't. Or are the courts being sexiest again and siding with the complainants because they are female?

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  2. Bitches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Bitches

  3. Supid girls by alexborges · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Are you KIDDING ME?

    I mean, can you go to a police officer and tell him: this person wrote, in that public wall set up for public expression purposes, hatefull things about me. He said my cnt was drying off and my children would grow fungus because i do not take care of them. And he didnt even sign it!

    I know the police officer would have a laugh. I mean yea, there is libel, slander, but a public forum that allows anonymous people to post, is a place where the girls or any idiot should be able to write WHATEVER THE FUCK they want.

    YES, i think even insulting other people or refering in BAD ways to their mother, anonymously.

    If that sort of thing bothers you, you shouldnt be allowed to breathe in a democracy.

    Your freedom to write whatever the fuck you want comes at the cost of other people excercising the exact very same freedom.

    Just cause an AC is a potty mouth, they shouldnt be liable for anything criminal related to what they WRITE.

    Jesus, please, get all this wankers off the internet before they turn it into their lovingly misserable family playground.

    The net is virgin territory, lets NOT commit here the same mistakes we have in meatspace.

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  4. You can't harrass women online or anywhere else. by tjstork · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I'm sorry, but, women are different from men. If a women yells at a man, the man thinks, 9/10 out of ten, "I shouldn't have to listen to this crap, because I could totally kick your rear end until you do the dishes". If a man yells at a woman, its much more threatening. Even my 3 year old son knows this. If my wife yells at me, he just tunes it out. But if I yell back, or even raise my voice, it scares him. So, its like, all a man can really do is to eat the stress, accept that the heart attack is inevitable, and move on. The inverse is to have a society, well, like Iran.

    So, yeah, let's bring up the silly "think of the women and children" argument, because, we have to. We can't pretend that everyone is equally capable of self defense and have a wild west mentality on the internet because not everyone is. Until men are angels, there has to be law and order to protect women on the internet, just as surely as there must be police to escort women to cars after hours at the office.

    It's just right.

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  5. Re:I think not. by urcreepyneighbor · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    2) I wouldn't hire these women on the basis that they are throwing hissy-fits over meaningless posts on the interwebs.

    Disclaimer: My opinion. Don't know these females, don't want to. The following is only my opinion.

    Same here. Instead of "getting back" at some lame troll(s), they are marking themselves as whining little twats that can't handle the Big Boy World. Any idiot that hires them deserves the headaches that will inevitably come with their employment.

    ooh! I may get sued for this!

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    "The fight for freedom has only just begun." - Geert Wilders
  6. Re:Technicality? by clampolo · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Here's a better idea. Anyone that lets internet text upset them should have "I AM A PUSSY" tattooed across their forehead to warn people that they are in the presence of a pussy.

    It's bad enough that you have to hold your tongue at work. I remember one guy next to me had some anime wallpaper on his screen. No nudity or anything..just Japanese cartoon women. Some pussy complained and HR forced the guy to change his wallpaper. I don't blame HR, I blame the law. Right now the law is written so that the whiniest and most think-skinned get their way. And the 99% of other people have to live in fascism.

  7. People who don't believe X will be tortured. by FatSean · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    That's what Christianity says. Eternal pain and suffering for those who reject Jebus.

    But then again, the delusions of the religious always get a pass in our society...

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    Blar.
  8. Re:I don't know... by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Sorry, this is completely wrong. The two girls were named on the forum, and their pictures and class schedules were posted. Some of the posters even followed them to the gym, posted photos and their usual schedules, along with calls to rape them.

    At that point their identity is widely known. Posting pictures and schedules defamation does not make. Posting anonymous calls to rape/murder/what-not of a random person is a daily (if not hourly) occurrence on pretty much every Internet forum, including Slashdot. None of this constitutes "libel" as libel requires the libelous assertions to be credible. Anonymous Internet posts are by definition not credible. Which I already pointed out many times.

    The Jane Doe ploy now is an attempt to regain some of their privacy. But those of us who have been either following the case or done a little more research than you know exactly who they are.

    Which, again, is in direct opposition to the presumed goal of the suit: restoring their character in the public view.

    It boggles my mind that this very simple, basic, fundamental logical premise of defense against libel seems to escape you (and many others here) - the only way to do so is to prove the libelous assertions false. The only way to do that is to contrast your real character and actions against the accusations. And of course the only way to do that is to stand firm, in person, against the accusers. Anonymity is an anathema to such defense.

    If, on the other hand, you intend to use courts as a blunt weapon to harm your detractors, without being able to prove their assertions false, everything changes and anonymity becomes an asset.

    I take it you aren't a law student.

    But of course, the land is divided into two classes of people: the Divinely Appointed Lawyer-Priests and the bleating sheep forever at the mercy of the Lords Of Law, the sheep of course having no say in the matter, remaining forever ignorant of the byzantine intricacies of the Divine Laws, understanding of which is "impossible" but adherence to which is absolutely demanded, right? Is this what you are trying to say?

    Also: point out a singular legitimate (as opposed to "legal") "libel" or "defamation" suit filed (and won) anonymously.

  9. Re:Exactly... wrong by A+nonymous+Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    you're ready to make ad hominem attacks.

    If rest of your arguments match the quality of your knowledge of ad hominem, they are safe to ignore.

  10. Re:You can't harrass women online or anywhere else by tjstork · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    So you are saying what? All women are weaker than men and less able to defend themselves, automatically?
    Talk about a BS blanket statement

    It's true. Just is. Sure, there's exceptions, but, overwhelmingly the odds are if you put 100 men on and 100 women on an island and there are no rules, the men will come out on top.

    I know feminists who might come to blows with you just for implying tha

    Yeah, and these very feminists are looking for laws against any expression of male power in the workplace because they know they cannot defend themselves. Feminism only exists because western men have decided to trade for that which men in other cultures simply take, and even the most strident feminist has absolutely no problem summoning the government to ensure such theft never takes place in western culture and many work to extend it around the world.

    Heck, any number of women boxers or martial artists in general could (at least) surprise you or I in a physical confrontation.

    Probably, unless I was a black belt boxer that could bench 400lbs and carried a pistol, in which case, they would not have good odds at all. Oh, sure, yes, there are some women out there that could beat the rear of many men, but for the most part, men are bigger, stronger, faster and more aggressive, and women are sitting ducks as a whole. Are there women out there that could kick my ass? Probably, evolution isn't about exceptions - its about larger trends, and civilization is nice and all, but ultimately, Darwin doesn't care about how women get pregnant and men are bred to reflect that.

    wife has trained with Rorion Gracie for 5 years.

    Big deal. If all of these body builders and ultimate fighting people were so fricking tough - why the hell are they not in the war!

    They might be able to fight in some mock cage, but, let's see these guys have some real balls and walk down the streets of Ramadi in Iraq. It makes me sick to see all of this ultimate fighting and pro-wrestling circus crap on TV and these guys are acting like badasses when many of them can't be bothered to get in the war.

    I'll tell you what. I'm no tough guy. I'm no bad ass. But, if I were twenty years younger, I'd be in Iraq right now, simply because, if I lived through it, no matter how tough someone said they were, I could say, I went through a real war. Toughness isn't flexing in a cage and having 5% body fat. Toughness is riding in an unarmoured HMMV convoy day in and day out wondering if you'll be take out next. Toughness is telling your blown up buddy to hang in there even though half his torso is gone. Toughness is getting blown up, being in a firefight, fighting every sensible instinct to run so that your teamates can get out alive.

    Seriously, martial arts is overhyped. If you want a good account of martial arts vs western style fighting, how the hell did the USA successfully invade Okinawa, the birthplace of Karate, with 50,000 Americans killed or wounded, versus 200,000 Japanese -dead-. Suicide charges, ninja sneaking around, night fighting and all of this cartoon stuff they call serious fighting, and the USA kicked their asses with a bunch of conscripts from a country that teaches its children to hunt from an early age and thus kicked their ass.

    Do you think women bodybuilders or powerlifters need (or want) a 110 pound rent-a-badge walking them to their cars?

    Yeah, but how many women body builders are there? And look what it does to women? And, what if a woman body builder goes up against a male body builder?

    I mean, I've never heard of an army where all the men got raped, but I could rattle off plenty of cases in the last century where indeed, mass rapes did take place. Even Boudica, probably the greatest of all women fighters, got raped.

    Sorry, but your thesis is a joke. You might ask your feminist friends just how it is that women essentially came to be the property of men, and still are, in many parts of the world. Why can't -those- women defend themselves?

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