Libel and Fair Play in Internet Posts: Who Determines the Truth?

On Monday, Harry Idiot hit Suzy Homemaker with his car. Suzy, who was on her way to Bible study, was a Sunday school teacher and volunteered to feed the homeless. She died at the scene. Harry, reeking of alcohol at 10 a.m., was driving a red Ford Mustang and on his way to the horse track. He was uninjured. Thousands of citizen journalists who fill the Internet could have written the story. However, the actual author was Suzy's grieving niece who is also Harry's ex-girlfriend. The story might be accurate, but how does that make it fair to Harry? Equally importantly, how can readers be sure they are getting the whole story?

In the United States, we have a history of and a belief in the right to a fair trial. The Internet has changed that and not for the better. Libel laws and rules of fair play have been largely ignored with regard to the Internet. Anyone can post anything he wants to post.

So what's next for the Internet? A backlash against all users because of the insipid and careless use of cyberspace by so-called citizen journalists. Often, they have neither citizenship nor journalism in mind.

This year, a woman in Missouri was indicted on federal charges. She faces up to 20 years in prison for a MySpace hoax that may have contributed to the suicide of a teenage girl. The woman acted more child-like than the 13-year-old victim. She certainly deserves to be punished, but the knee-jerk reaction of the legal establishment was to make more laws regarding cyber-stalking.

In this well-publicized case, the cyber-stalker will probably spend time in jail. However, no one has truly addressed the depth of the issue. In the print media, the publisher can be held liable when it allows libelous or injurious material to be published. On the Internet, only the writer is held liable and only some of the time.

That means unscrupulous websites publish anything that gets them page views. They rarely so much as apologize to the victim. This is the coming storm on the Internet. The backlash is beginning.