3 ms·

How should defamation be handled? It is good to have recourse against baseless accusations, but we also want to prevent chilling effects discouraging fact-check

How should defamation be handled? It is good to have recourse against baseless accusations, but we also want to prevent chilling effects discouraging fact-checking. If handled privately, then the public may not even be aware of falsified information while the parties resolve the claims; and we wouldn't want decisions or further research to be based upon falsified data. > With defamation lawsuits, White said, “The process is the punishment.” Even assuming that Gino’s claims are dismissed at trial, the suit will still have bullied researchers who pointed out problems with her work — and may make other researchers more reluctant to follow in their footsteps by speaking out when they notice signs of data manipulation. > “However, it is not worth it for me to do this in the future, or to share my findings publicly,” Pallesen wrote. “This would give me a non-zero risk of financial ruin, and no real personal upside. Probably many researchers are making this same calculation at this moment.”

shadowgovt 3y ago
Precisely. This is why I'm interested to see how institutions will react to this threat vector. If defamation suits become a standard go-to for disgraced researchers, the knowledge that institutions will defend them without even batting an eye (via a pot of insurance-backed money) will likely de-fang that approach. "Sure, you could sue for defamation, but you know you're wrong; do you really want to burn years just to enrich a couple lawyers instead of accepting the inevitable here?" The only way pulling the other researchers into this suit seems rational to me at all is if she had reason to believe they might roll over and settle instead of digging into their affirmative defense and further shredding her reputation.
- Aerroon 3y ago
  What will this do for individuals not bound to institutions though? Will regular people just have to accept whatever is published as scientific research?
  - shadowgovt 3y ago
    That's the current status quo. In general, if it's not published (with peer review) its reflection of reality is suspect from a scientific standpoint. "... Anyone who says differently is selling something." ;)
xoa 3y ago
>How should defamation be handled? With a strong federal anti-SLAPP statute. We have the legal tools for this already, the problem is simply that they've been haphazardly adopted. Anti-SLAPP is a straight forward decent measure that doesn't stop valid defamation lawsuits, but merely makes sure the lawsuit has legs before it gets into the expensive (discovery) part, and has provisions to recover attorney fees. Former prosecutor, now defense lawyer Ken White did an excellent, fairly exhaustive 3 part series on Anti-SLAPP laws covering their rational, how they work, and what makes good or bad statutory implementations in "What Is An Anti-SLAPP, Anyway? A Lawsplainer Series" [0, 1, 2]. Well worth a read as it's a reasonably important issue and also something that doesn't fall along traditional politicization lines and can be quite doable for citizens to push their reps on. ---- 0: https://popehat.substack.com/p/what-is-an-anti-slapp-anyway-a-lawsplainer https://popehat.substack.com/p/what-is-an-anti-slapp-anyway-... 1: https://popehat.substack.com/p/what-is-an-anti-slapp-anyway-a-lawsplainer-44b https://popehat.substack.com/p/what-is-an-anti-slapp-anyway-... 2: https://popehat.substack.com/p/what-is-an-anti-slapp-anyway-a-lawsplainer-46c https://popehat.substack.com/p/what-is-an-anti-slapp-anyway-...

shadowgovt 3y ago

Precisely. This is why I'm interested to see how institutions will react to this threat vector. If defamation suits become a standard go-to for disgraced researchers, the knowledge that institutions will defend them without even batting an eye (via a pot of insurance-backed money) will likely de-fang that approach. "Sure, you could sue for defamation, but you know you're wrong; do you really want to burn years just to enrich a couple lawyers instead of accepting the inevitable here?" The only way pulling the other researchers into this suit seems rational to me at all is if she had reason to believe they might roll over and settle instead of digging into their affirmative defense and further shredding her reputation.

Aerroon 3y ago
What will this do for individuals not bound to institutions though? Will regular people just have to accept whatever is published as scientific research?
- shadowgovt 3y ago
  That's the current status quo. In general, if it's not published (with peer review) its reflection of reality is suspect from a scientific standpoint. "... Anyone who says differently is selling something." ;)

xoa 3y ago

>How should defamation be handled? With a strong federal anti-SLAPP statute. We have the legal tools for this already, the problem is simply that they've been haphazardly adopted. Anti-SLAPP is a straight forward decent measure that doesn't stop valid defamation lawsuits, but merely makes sure the lawsuit has legs before it gets into the expensive (discovery) part, and has provisions to recover attorney fees. Former prosecutor, now defense lawyer Ken White did an excellent, fairly exhaustive 3 part series on Anti-SLAPP laws covering their rational, how they work, and what makes good or bad statutory implementations in "What Is An Anti-SLAPP, Anyway? A Lawsplainer Series" [0, 1, 2]. Well worth a read as it's a reasonably important issue and also something that doesn't fall along traditional politicization lines and can be quite doable for citizens to push their reps on. ---- 0: https://popehat.substack.com/p/what-is-an-anti-slapp-anyway-a-lawsplainer https://popehat.substack.com/p/what-is-an-anti-slapp-anyway-... 1: https://popehat.substack.com/p/what-is-an-anti-slapp-anyway-a-lawsplainer-44b https://popehat.substack.com/p/what-is-an-anti-slapp-anyway-... 2: https://popehat.substack.com/p/what-is-an-anti-slapp-anyway-a-lawsplainer-46c https://popehat.substack.com/p/what-is-an-anti-slapp-anyway-...