News4Jax recently aired a segment about Online Hate Speech Can Get Ugly Fast. With the ever expanding Internet, growing social media, as well as digital warfare, chances are very good you may be the victim of online slime through malicious keystrokes and a click of the mouse.
Posting vile and offensive remarks may be considered free speech, however when it crosses a line into defamatory statements, there may be legal ramifications for that poster. Although some people think that being anonymous online shields their identity, there are many ways that your digital footprint can be traced back to your computer.
Free speech does not condone defamation. What is Internet defamation? Internet defamation, sometimes called "defamation of character", is spoken or written (or posted online) words that falsely and negatively reflect on a living person's reputation.
If a person or the news media says or writes something about you that is understood to lower your reputation, or that keeps people from associating with you, defamation has occurred. Slander and libel are two forms of defamation.
Determining the difference between defamation and posting an opinion can be a gray legal area of law. Proving defamation, although you may believe to be easy, can be quite costly and time consuming.
One landmark case in Florida was tried in Broward County. This case resulted with an $11.3M jury verdict for damages done to the plaintiff after she was defamed online by another person. This story is told in Google Bomb, which is a must read for anyone that is online.
Online hate speech can be costly. Think twice before you post, and most of all, think twice before you hit send on an email you wrote out of emotion. You never know what will be coming back to haunt you.
Watch video from Jax4News here. Visite www.googlebombbook.com for more information on Internet defamation, slander and your online responsibilities.
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