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Vulgar Comment On Newspaper Site Costs Man His Job
DeeFresh writes "ReadWriteWeb has an article up today discussing an incident in which a school employee lost his job after leaving a comment on the website of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper. After the school employee responded to the newspaper's poll of 'the strangest thing you've ever eaten' with a feline-inspired vulgarity, Kurt Greenbaum, the site's director of social media, tracked down the commenter's identity through his IP address and reported him to school officials. When confronted, the school employee resigned from his job."
From TFA
In his defense, he probably thought he was simply tattle-telling on a naughty student who would learn a valuable lesson about internet anonymity and would have to sit through a week's detention or something of the like.
From the sound of things, the guy was crapflooding the site. If you're responsible for moderating a forum, and you're being crapflooded from the local .edu, then why not call the admin up and complain? Probably just some kid with too much time on his hands.
And there is nothing to suggest that he particularly cared that the word was. He was an admin, he was being crapflooded, he complained. I consider that a much better solution than, say, blocking an IP address (which might well be shared.)
He was in no way responsible for the action that was ultimately taken.
School systems do not allow for any personal use. They also have morality clauses built into their contract. The poster was wise to post anonymously but when his IP came up as a public school domain he was caught. Its no different from visiting facebook or any other site. Considering the fact that the guy was discussing sex related topics (pussy) at school is just as bad as reading penthouse letters while in the classroom. My wife is a teacher and as such she has to keep her facebook page private. Should any picture show up on the internet (even one taken by someone else and posted on someone elses website) suggesting that she was holding a beer/drink at a party, it is a fire-able offense. There have been many teachers fired over facebook content. The risk is what happens when a student finds and discovers the content. There was a teacher fired last year for being hysterical after a car accident in a Gym parking lot. She was crying uncontrollably and several parents called and complained to the principal the following day calling her crazy and not fit to teach their children.
In a truly free country, people shouldn't be forced to associate with other people that they disagree with, no?
In a truly free country, the natural association that all people have with each other is respected, and no one is ostracized or left out. In a non-free country, a few people can stick a flag in something and deny access to the rest. The mechanism by which those people are chosen is irrelevant. Birth, violence, money, irrelevant. The US achieved its power by being the least free nation on earth, where a man who is cruel and vicious enough can realize his dream to be a feudal lord. That's a great way to achieve power in the short term. Doesn't bode well for the long term health of the nation, but you leave something for the future and still have everything...
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
The paper did not release any information to a third party. The contacted the registered owner of the IP address which sent the message. Most definitely a "first party".
And this is the key, isn't it? He didn't go to law enforcement or the ISP even. He went to the owner of the system and let them know that someone (probably a student at the school) was misusing one of their computers.
This wasn't internet vigilanteism, it was courtesy to the system owner. Regardless, if you troll someone, there should be no righteous indignation when you get trolled back.
Write your representatives! Repeal the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics!