Kids who have grown up never knowing a world without the Internet are getting an education in what it means to post mean or false things about other people while trying to hide behind a nickname: there’s no anonymity in cyberspace.
Former Maple Leaf GM Brian Burke’s lawyers are tracking down the people who spread a nasty rumour that Burke was the father of sports caster Hazel Mae’s baby. Now, in order to tell you the story I need to tell what the story is and until the lawsuit I had never heard the rumour that apparently spread like wildfire around sports blogs and message boards. Both Burke and Mae are married and not to each other and now the free world knows the embarrassment they’ve both suffered from the stories. Burke has even launched a lawsuit against 18 such posters.
I was once an observer to a lawsuit that rooted out a so-called anonymous person for posting something potentially defamatory and that person was found out and had to apologize on the same forum using their real name. It’s galling to me that one of Burke’s gossip mongers, now known to be a Carlton journalism student, is baffled at why anything he has to say is upsetting to someone like Burke. What the hell is that University teaching about ethics and confirming sources? Meantime, on the one hand, no one had heard of his blog until the suit was filed. On the other hand, it’s high time these thoughtless weasels who think they can say whatever they want about whomever they want, get the reality check they deserve.
The rules are clear, as spelled out this week in an article in The Toronto Star: It’s no different than what you say in a letter, a book, a newspaper or any other public forum, says Internet law expert Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. “The law applies online just as it does offline,” said Geist.