Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
Google forced to Reveal Offensive Blogger
Well, Google’s in court again, although this time its not because of something they technically did. The veil of ‘the internet’ is starting to crumble and online ‘bullying’ is something that’s being taken more seriously, especially in cases of defamation of character… as is the case this time. Now, Google’s not in trouble, nor should they be, however, here’s where things get a little tricky and even groundbreaking in this particular case. Google owns the popular blogging service Blogger. Blogger’s been around about 10 years now, and was purchased by Google back in 2003. Since then, its popularity has skyrocketed, allowing everyone and their grandma to start blogging, making it easier than using Word. Each bloggers content is their own and for the most part, they’re entitled to do/say whatever they want, Google’s not monitoring and they won’t be monitoring. However, in this instance, a lovely little blog called “Skanks of NYC” has managed to raise quite a stink. Numerous posts over time take a harsh swipe at model Liskula Cohen, calling her some pretty nasty things, ultimately causing Liskula to take the matter to court. The Blogger has been hiding under a pseudonym, which is quite common online as no one would ever say such fowl things if it could ever be traced back to them, something that is both the beauty and the bane of the internet, but this case changes that. A Manhattan judge ordered Google to release the name of the Blogger in an effort to have charges brought against the appropriate individual. This seems pretty straight forward as a “Duh, of course that’d be the ruling” but its fairly groundbreaking as it begins to set a new standard in the concept of accountability online.
We all have the right to free speech, and the internet has been a prime outlet for that, BongMan420* can say whatever he wants, and up until this week, has been able to hide behind his amazing username. But we’re entering a new day and age, the same rules are being applied online as they would in any other media form, and rightfully so. It’ll be interesting to see where this heads going forward, but I think the most intriguing thing is the fact that we’re seeing that online veil come down. Looks like I’m going to have to stop posting under false names on everyone else’s blogs. Argh…
More from Mashable: http://mashable.com/2009/08/19/google-identity-blogger/
* I’m sure there’s someone named BongMan420 out there, I’m in no way insinuating they were the naughty blogger. I made that up on the fly, because that’s how I roll. BongMan420, if you’re reading this and I offended your delicate sensibilities, I deeply apologize.
