Slashdot Mirror
Man Fined $4,000 For 'Liking' Defamatory Posts on Facebook (cnn.com)
In what appears to be a first, a court in Switzerland has fined a man the equivalent of over $4,000 just for clicking the "like" button on what a judge said were defamatory Facebook comments. From a report: The court in Zurich found that the man indirectly endorsed and further distributed the comments by using the ubiquitous Facebook "like" button. The man, who was not named in the court's statement, "liked" several posts written by a third party that accused an animal rights activist of antisemitism, racism and fascism. In court, the man was not able to prove that the claims were accurate or could reasonably be held to be true. "The defendant clearly endorsed the unseemly content and made it his own," a statement from the court said. The court fined the man a total of 4,000 Swiss francs ($4,100). He has the right to appeal his sentence. Facebook said the case had "no direct link" to the company, and a spokesperson declined to comment.
Everyone who uses Facebook should be fined $4000.
... for a court to be putting into a "like" button.
For one thing, does "liking" using the button imply endorsement? Does "like" mean what they think it means? Or was the person's intention? And what if it was inadvertent clicking?
What if the button was called "interesting..." instead?
You would think that a court would restrain itself and hesitate to rule, given so many possibilities of meaning and ambiguities here...
Ok, is Switzerland, so maybe they have different laws from what I’m used to. But in the civilized world, we value free speech. The right to free speech often translates into the right to be a total asshole, but that’s the price we pay to ensure that well-meaning people don’t have their rights stomped on by a fascist government.
Now, speech can be INVOLVED in criminal behavior. For instance, libel and slander. These come down not to the speech but the consequences of the speech. You can “defame” a fictional character all you want, and you can say really asshole things about non-specific people.
In this specific case there’s this “third party” who said defamatory things about an animal rights activist — who are THEY? Why aren’t we hearing more about this third party? Why aren’t they in trouble? Why is some moron with a like button fined $4000 when the original defamer is left unscathed?
I’m really liberal, but this sounds like some of that SJW shit the conservatives are always going on about.
Isn't the Slashdot moderation system based on likes? If moderators can get sued for promoting a post, Slashdot isn't long for the Internet.
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
Thoughtcrime!
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I was about to start throwing my weight around in here, moderating up/down, but then I realised I could face legal consequences for endorsing anyones views. :-/
Then the button needs to be called "Endorse and support" and not "Like," so that it is explicit in its meaning to both the user and the viewer
Twinstiq, game news
That may only be secondary to their intention, Facebook does a lot of weird stuff behind the scenes to create feeds and it's not always explicit as to what is the catalyst, and it may nor be the intention of the person, and may not be understood, that by using that function it will enact some other peripheral 'features'
Twinstiq, game news