regarding forum policy in Ireland - very important read for forum owners
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Internet News - Online row forces website move to US
Internet News - The question of how to balance free speech and the laws of libel in online debates has been raised by a recent case, writes Catherine O’Mahony. Dave Cochrane, founder and moderator of the political discussion website Politics.ie, now has a buffer between himself and any solicitors who might want to pursue him. Three weeks ago, following a demand from a Dublin firm of solicitors to remove content and to identify posters to the site, he took a decision to transfer his operations to a US server, and also to sell the site to a US-registered company, in which the principal shareholder is himself. In the US, he enjoys the protection of the Communications Decency Act, which states that the owner of a website is not personally responsible in law for what anyone who uses the site might say. At issue in this case was a comment posted on Politics.ie about the Taoiseach’s former secretary, Gráinne Carruth. A Dublin legal firm contacted Cochrane asking for the comment to be removed. Cochrane said he complied ‘‘within minutes’’. He also asked the website server Google to remove the material from its search facility, which it did after a week. Cochrane agrees the comment was potentially controversial. However, he said he believed the Dublin law firm was asking him to breach the Data Protection Act, in asking him to identify six website users who had become involved in the online discussion. Concerned about his potential liability over the incident, he posted the correspondence in full on Politics.ie. Two days later he had transferred both his site, plus five years of data associated with it, to a US server. He said he feared that, if the solicitors successfully pursued Hosting 365, the operator of the Irish server, it might be compelled to shut him down. The incident has been much discussed on forums online, often compounding the original libel - an example of the grey area that operators of discussion boards inhabit, from a legal perspective. Many posters to web discussion sites do so anonymously, and their language can be colourful. The sites tend to depend on in-house regulation and the vigilance of established users. Cochrane said he did not believe in facilitating free-for-all online comment. He did not allow ongoing court cases to be discussed on the site, but made an exception for Ireland’s tribunals on the grounds of public interest. Since he launched Politics.ie five years ago, he said he had received solicitors’ letters about items about once every three or four months. He has always complied with requests to remove offensive material. He has also ‘‘informally operated’’ according to what he calls the DGDS rule - standing for Don’t Get Dave Sued. He said he and his team of content moderators - about a dozen people who represent a variety of political perspectives - regularly query postings and remove things when they seem questionable. Since the latest spat, he has also introduced new rules to his site. There is a warning system for users who post material that is libellous or bordering on libel. After ten warnings, they will be banned, he said. ‘‘The site is about opinions, and those opinions will often be more controversial than anything in a newspaper,” he said. ‘‘But the people who post on my website need to be responsible for what they say. This is my site and my responsibility. I don’t have a legal cloak that protects me.” Cochrane’s position is not unique and his dilemma could face any number of bloggers and operators of well-used discussion boards, such as Askaboutmoney.com and Boards. ie. Moderators like himself also worry about loose remarks people might make online about, for instance, stock investments, where a desire for personal gain might adversely affect share prices. Cochrane and the operators of several other Irish sites plan to come together this summer to frame a document, outlining their position, which they will give to the government for consideration as part of its Defamation Bill. Cochrane said the new bill should cover online media as well as traditional media. Cochrane, a former Progressive Democrat, who is campaign manager for the Libertas anti-Lisbon Treaty campaign, said he had considered shutting down his website. ‘‘A couple of barristers who use the site told me I should shut the whole thing down or I might end up bankrupted.” Politics.ie, which regularly attracts posts from named politicians, has around 12,000 registered users and gets 12,000 to 14,000 visitors a day.
