Recently I had to censor -- that is, delete -- a legitimate comment on this blog. I don't feel good about it. Here is an attempt to explain why I did it, and under what circumstances I would do it again.
I won't say which post triggered the comment, suffice it to say I was taking a potshot at someone I read about in the media. A comment was posted that was started off making some remarks even less complimentary than my own, followed by an accusation that the person in question was in fact a pedophile. Specifics involving schools and a certain town were mentioned. In short, there was an attempt to air some pretty dirty laundry on my humble blog.
I emailed the person making the comment to say that I have no way of verifying whether or not their claims are true, and frankly, even if it were possible I wouldn't care to do so. It's just not worth the risk of potentially defaming this person. I am not a lawyer and I don't know if I have any legal protection against defamatory comments posted on my blog. All I do know is that I don't care to find out. Happy to take the risk and responsibility for myself, but not for anyone else.
If girtby.net were a Real Website I would put up a privacy statement or some other legal arse coverage. It may well come to that.
In the meantime the about page has been updated to state for the record that:
- Defamatory comments posted here will be removed
- Spam (according to my own definition which I will not share) will be removed
- Other types of comments probably won't be modified, except perhaps to clean HTML markup
- I will share anything and everything with the authorities if they so ask
- I will try to do the right thing, but if you want to keep something private don't send it to me
Good move! Being on the receiving end of a defamation lawsuit filed in NSW is pretty expensive, as I found out a few years back.
I’ve had to delete two defamatory comments from my weblog, and, each time, I too found the process difficult.