thedirty.com .. should it be held liable for gossip?

[Ice4fun 78407]

While I don't disagree with what you are saying in regards to this particular court decision I have to say that there is something wrong with the legal frame work when it allows a site like TheDirty to operate and ruin people's lives with no real repercussions.

 

There are thousands of respectable sites that contain content submitted by others that operate respectably while everyone who has ever seen TheDirty immediately recognizes it as nothing but a site for online bullying. It's reason to exist is to allow people to post any negative thing that they want about someone else and then hide knowing that unless the victim has lots of resources to spend then there is nothing that could be done.

 

We would not allow this to happen on the public airwaves or in print but we have on the internet.

 

The section 230 protection makes sense when the operator of the service is not implicit in the bullying perhaps the law should be rewritten to allow our judges to use their judgment and appropriately allow for companies to be held accountable when they are complicit.

 

The Section 230 protection is important! To allow for a free and open exchange of information on the internet and yes reducing protection for companies might result in changes in business models or even displacement of economic activity to less restrictive jurisdictions... but I kind of feel that the way we protect individuals, especially those unable to defend themselves, says something about our society.

 

If you have ever met anyone who has been bullied on line on a site like this or one of the blog sites you will know just how destructive this can be in their life and how absolutely helpless you are to defend yourself.

 

Just my Opinion

 

Sent from my Passport using Tapatalk

[Meaghan McLeod 179664]

I hate that site. It appears to be down. Hopefully for good.

[East Coast Kimmy 1086]

I hate this webpage also! 
& it’s almost impossible to get posts removed. I’ve been trying to almost a decade ... 🙄 it’s sad and unfortunate that pages like these are even allowed to exist. It’s horrible bullying in the most cowardly form, from behind a screen anonymously. 
The publishers of the page could care less what type of energy they’re putting out into the world - they are getting clout for all these slander posts & I guess ANY attention is good enough for them! 
 

I am going through legal proceedings now with thedirty.com because the post of myself contains photos of me as minor (14) that clearly I did not consent to being shared - other than to my social media at the time. So I may have a case for removal due to exploitation of a minor by a third party on their page, but that’s still in a process and hasn’t been removed immediately so it doesn’t seem to really bother the people who can operate that site 🤷🏼‍♀️ 

 

Even more disheartening, for us being in this line of work we face struggles and risks on a day to day basis without having another person trying to “out” us for being a part of this industry. Very dangerous, very cold & very sad 😔 

 

Pardon my rant here - just wanted to share my opinion and experience with this HORRIBLE site (dirty)  and concept of a bully board !!! 

[Guest]

This was discussed before:

Does anyone have successful gotten posts from the Dirty removed? - Lyla

Being U.S. based and protected by the First Amendment of their Constitution in regard to freedom of speech, not much can done other than expose policy violations like child porn or certain personal information.

[Phaedrus 209521]

Yeah, it's almost impossible to get stuff removed. It's very expensive to do anything at all and even then there's not a lot that can be done unless it's obvious that laws have been broken. When you're dealing with harassment and abuse it seems you generally have to find out who's doing it and go after them rather than going after the websites.

If you want an in-depth take on it (but nothing to do with sex work) - have a look at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/30/technology/change-my-google-results.html. It's pretty horrifying how much damage one shitposter can do to many people's lives.

 

[East Coast Kimmy 1086]

Very NON HELPFUL —- they seem not care about exploiting photos of minors over the internet and spreading false info 

 

just a complete money grab. Funny how they can’t be responsible to take it down but if u pay $3000+ to their sister companies they would happily oblige 😡 

 

any person who posts someone on that site can be held liable and tracked by their IP address 

not sure how it works after 10 years but I am absolutely disgusted by their response & how they handle things