Do you know what the current laws in the US are regarding posting information and commenting online? When it comes to posting comments, at least in the US, the only types of online comments that have gotten someone into legal trouble are those that involved threatening someone’
s immediate safety and/or repeated stalking of someone online. Of course, a few of those cases have already grown to ridiculous proportions, see the Justin Carter case in Texas last year, for instance. Do you know what the official rules are?
This is also for anyone else on this thread who is particularly knowledgeable.
In theory, regular libel laws apply to internet postings, but:
1. Under the Communications Decency Act, the operator of a website who permits reader comments is not liable for those comments; in theory the commenter is, but it is difficult and expensive to uncover the identity of an anonymous commenter (although it has been done);
2. U.S. libel law is very defendant-friendly; only false statements of fact, not opinions, are actionable; truth is always a defense; and, if the plaintiff is a public figure, he must prove not only that the statements about him were false, but that the defendant knew they were false (or was at least reckless in saying them);
(3) Many, but not all, U.S. courts say that, if there is some doubt about whether a statement was a statement of fact or one of opinion, it weighs in the defendant's favor that the statement was made on the internet, where people expect a lot of hyperbole and exaggeration. (The Ninth Circuit's decision this month in Obsidian Finance v. Cox is a good example of that rule.)