A Legal question

bowlhead99

jimjames wrote: »

Without that info they may consider themselves to be more exposed to legal action as it would be them as the publisher not the poster that placed the message.

Yes - under the Defamation Act, the website operator has a valid defence against an accusation of defamation if they show it wasn't them that posted the statement and they respond in accordance with the regulations (unless they acted with malice in allowing it to be posted).

The defence is defeated if the claimant isn't given enough information to 'identify' the person who did post it (identification = enough info to bring proceedings against them).

So it would be quite normal and reasonable for a site like MSE, where they have received a notice of complaint about something they are hosting, to request contact details of its users who posted something.

Because of the sheer number of individuals and companies discussed on this site, the operators of the site must get boatloads of complaints from time to time ; if the users are not willing to say who they are, then presumably MSE can assume that the users don't care enough about the post to leave it published, and delete it (without full regard to whether the accusation from the complainant has merit, which could take £££ of legal time to establish).

If people actually want their views to remain published and are willing to lose their anonymity for it then a site like MSE simply has to act in line with the regulations to avoid being held responsible themselves.

Obviously if you provide information that allows you to be identified, someone aggrieved by what you say (or their solicitors) may legitimately obtain that information and contact you about it. Seems reasonable to me, as how else would a person or a business offering legitimate products or services be able to protect themselves from reckless defamation?