3 ms·
Ask HN: Facebook has no mechanism to fight defamation
I recently experienced an interesting situation. The administrator and a moderator of a FB group posted defamatory information about me. Not opinion. Categorical statements that are demonstrably false...and they know it.
What's interesting is that they simultaneously shut down comments and banned me from the group. I learned of this through friends who are still in the group.
For the curious, the root of the issue was a discussion I initiated about a new tax measure that would cost homeowners in the town this group serves thousands of dollars per year. The administrator removed the post and banned me from the group. Why? Because the taxes collected by that measure benefit the union they belong to. In other words, the intent was to silence discussion that could reveal this to people who don't normally read the fine print.
This led to a private discussion where I explained that this was relevant content and that instantly banning me from the group was an overreaction. I did not know, until muy later, that they stood to personally benefit if people voted for this measure. The conversation contained no threats or nasty language. If you read it, it looks and sounds exactly as this post.
This event made me realize that Facebook provides no recourse whatsoever to deal with something like this. Group administrators and moderators can do and say anything they want without repercussions. The only way to even attempt something would require hiring an attorney to go after them for defamation. Facebook remains immune due to current legislation. The group administrators and moderators, not so.
Imagine someone creating a group on FB to serve as the source of news and information for a town. Imagine these people then engaging in blocking any information that does not align with their political stance or might not benefit them financially. We are not talking about pro-democrats vs. pro-republicans here. That's not the story. It's about filtering discussions of measures people will have to vote on to disallow conversations about those they do not agree with.
It seems truly twisted that Facebook can be used this way. A person or people take ownership of a community group, twist it to distort reality and, beyond that, ban and defame anyone who they disagree with.
Does anyone on HN have a contact in Facebook who might be interested in looking into this matter to right a very real wrong and, perhaps, learn from it to improve similar community groups?
I've spoken to attorneys. A defamation lawsuit is a really nasty thing. People can lose their home and more over these things. I have no interest in doing that to someone else (two attorneys have told me this is a solid case of defamation). The correct outcome in this case should be that the group needs to be taken away from them and they should be permanently banned from re-entering it in any way, perhaps even from starting any other group or page on FB.
Thanks.
- yuppie_scum 5y agoFB groups are the root of evil. Actually scratch that. FB is the root of all evil.
- TheMonarchist 5y agoI think your root cause analysis is incomplete. FB is evil because it must make money to stakeholders. The root cause is that stakeholders want money. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. -- 1 Timothy 6:10
- logicalmonster 5y agoCan you ask a friend to post your side of the story on there?
- fb_sucks 5y agoThere are many problems with this: First, I would have to violate privacy and post private conversations to the entire group. Nothing sensitive in there at all, but if I am going to push for integrity I can't be the one making such a move. Second, the admins and moderators have absolute power. They review and moderate everything. Which means that it is very likely that any such comments will not make it through. Third, my friend or family member is likely to get banned instantly just for trying. Finally, the power the admins/moderators have means they can refute anything and overpower anything you might say. In other words, they can say "you made that up" and the thousands of people on the group are far more likely to believe them than the person they already labelled as someone who threatened them. I should probably mention both of them are women and I am male. I lose. As far as I can determine there are only two ways to correct something like this. The first is for Facebook to intercede, evaluate the evidence (all of which is on their servers) and take action. The other is to go the legal route, which means these fools get hit with a libel lawsuit, which is no joke at all. I witnessed this in a business setting many years ago, all I can say is that the result for the person guilty of defamation can be absolutely brutal, both in financial and social terms. I am not the kind of person who would want to do this to someone else, no matter how stupid they have been in this case. I would love the opportunity to connect with someone in Facebook, have them evaluate the matter and take appropriate action.