Defamation Law on the Internet

This question has arisen lately due to many individuals making outlandish accusations regarding the Tea Party movement and it's intentions.

Namely, that the tea party will be arresting it's opposition and putting them in "internment camps". Taking away rights. Marching to the White House to arrest the president or worse.

Sane people, regardless of whether you like or agree with anything the tea party stands for, know these accusations to be untrue and just a product of the far left fringe attempting to discredit the tea party in the lead up to the November elections. Google tea party camps and you'll immediately see links leading to the usual suspects, Media Matters, Center for American Progress, and more similar progressive sites who may be encouraging and some say pay, people to use any means to attack the reputation of the tea party movement.

So just for the record, you "trolls" may want to study these two analyses including one case.

http://www.responsibilityproject.com/blog/taking-twitter-to-court/?src=keyword_s=ggl_K=DefamationOnline_C=Law_G=NewMedia_Defame_M=broad#fbid=C8_iURjkfcw

In a case straight from the uncharted cyber-territory of social networking and personal responsibility, a Chicago renter is being sued by her former landlord for referring to her apartment as “moldy” in a message she sent to a friend. Because the renter transmitted the message using the micro-blogging service Twitter, her landlord accused her of “maliciously and wrongfully” defaming his company “throughout the world.”

http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=latestnews&id=1874

The law of Defamation has come under renewed scrutiny with the advent of the Internet. This is largely because it is the nature of the Internet to give the average, anonymous person an opportunity to express their opinion well-beyond any previously defined venue. Consider the fact that a person of modest means now has the ability to publish a statement, article, or news item across the world in an instant, without an editor checking the facts. Thereafter, the item will linger on the 'Net for months, or even years, impossible to recover and amend, if the "facts" are erroneous. Therefore, it is inevitable that problems are going to arise.

The main issue to remember when dealing with the Internet is that people still have their basic legal rights intact on the Net, and - likewise - the Internet is not as completely anonymous as the typical person may presumes.