Freedom of Speech on the Internet

[Tameris Seb]

I am curious as to what your opinions are. I'm bringing this up because a friend of mine is being sued for $750,000 for a facebook page he made against a towing company in Kalamazoo. Here is the page http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=288159562692&ref=ts . So far numerous news outlets have picked it up, worldwide apparently since i read a story on it in a Russian news page. There are links to the news articles on the left side of the page somewhere.

[Gale Skreev'kyr]

Ok, if those Westboro folks are allowed free speech then your friend, who's actually speaking out against something legitimate, should have the right to as well. If anything, your friend could end up counter suing...

Edit: Looks like something similar (http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/ptech/02/16/facebook.speech.ruling/index.html) happened a while back.

[Heimdall Surtr]

I don't see any way he could be sued for voicing his opinion...

[Garden Skirata]

It depends on how careful he is about it; there can be a fine line between opinion and libel.

[Vistaer]

I believe the internet is a bastion of complete free speech, which has it's downsides (Whackadoos now have a worldwide audience to spread their BS to), but it has it's sheer benefits (Wikileaks, countering censorship in countries like China, etc.).

However, I think that the free speech requires anonymity. If your friend plastered his name on it, he invites the "possibility" of being sued for libel. This is why I hate sites like Facebook, Myspace, etc. You completely throw your privacy out the window.

On the flipside, this T&J group lost any anonymity they had when they sued him. Articles in local papers and 8000+ facebook followers proves this.