Lawyer Sues Facebook Claiming Other Users Defamed Him

from the they-don't-teach-section-230? dept

Fri, Oct 29th 2010 12:44am — Mike Masnick

It's always impressive when you see lawyers file lawsuits which suggest they're not entirely familiar with the law. Eric Goldman points us to a lawsuit filed by a Nevada lawyer, Jonathan Goldsmith, suing Facebook and two Facebook users for defamation, due to some mean Facebook comments.

Of course, Section 230 clearly shields Facebook from the actions of its users in defamation cases. As a lawyer, aren't you supposed to be aware of the law? There are some other oddities in the lawsuit as well, such as claiming both slander and libel for the Facebook comments. Normally, slander applies to spoken comments, libel to written. Now, I recall at least one case (in the UK, not the US), where the court suggested online forums were more like slander than libel, but it still seems a bit odd to see it in this case. And, either way, he claims both slander and libel. There are a few other oddities as well, including a claim that the mean comments on Facebook caused him to "seize" advertising on the site. I'm assuming he meant "cease"?

Yet again, it seems like sometimes even when people say mean stuff about you online, which might not be true, it's better to just shrug it off than filing a lawsuit, drawing a lot more attention to the mean things... and anything else that might get attention.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: defamation, jonathan goldsmith, liability, safe harbors, section 230
Companies: facebook

19 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Danielle Hudges, 29 Oct 2010 @ 1:28am

will that be pursued?
Granted that there's a case that was filed already. I do not exactly know if that case will go further. Is there a clear law and justifiable case for that? That's the common problem all the time whenever someone sues the other of something that is so devastating to one's reputation, it is not pursue the right way.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2010 @ 2:03am

This guy must've lived an interesting life, thinking that "cease" and "sieze" are the same word. When someone tells him to "sieze the day", does he go back to bed?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2010 @ 4:22am
  
  Re: "sieze the day"
  I guess he doesn't have axes to a dictionary like you do.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2010 @ 5:24am
    
    Re: Re: "sieze the day"
    It certainly shows an attention to detale that is desired in a lawyer for the schmuck you are sueing.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - halley (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 6:35am
      
      Re: Re: Re: "sieze the day"
      All of you raze important points here.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - Chris Rhodes (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 7:28am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: "sieze the day"
        Stop with the offal puns already!
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2010 @ 9:20am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: "sieze the day"
        grate, now I have a headake.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2010 @ 4:31am

I think your just giving the shysters free advertising. I'd of blocked there names out.

FUNNY and Ridiculous
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2010 @ 5:16am

Lawyer quotes through history are not kind at all to lawyers LoL

http://www.allgreatquotes.com/lawyer_quotes.shtml

The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
William Shakespeare
King Henry VI Part 2.

Lawyer, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law.
Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary.

Make crime pay. Become a lawyer.
Will Rogers

A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns.
Mario Puzo

It is better to be a mouse in a cat's mouth than a man in a lawyer's hands.
Spanish Proverb

Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne.
Jesus
The Bible, Luke 11. 46.

WTF! even Jesus knew.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2010 @ 5:16am

Jonathan Goldszmith is a faggot and a pedophile!!!

That's what he's suing over. Someone on facebook, that he never met, called him names.

Jonathan Goldsmith loves gay child porn!!!

Haha
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2010 @ 5:24am

people these days are out and out pussies. makes me sad for the human race
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Del Boy, 29 Oct 2010 @ 5:26am

Hmmm
Was one of the comments about his competitance as a lawyer & the other about his use of english?

lol
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Del Boy, 29 Oct 2010 @ 5:37am
  
  Re: Hmmm
  Heh just read the case document. lmfao....
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ryan Diederich, 29 Oct 2010 @ 5:28am

hehehe
Jonathan Goldszmith is in bed with his lawyers.

See, we can do it too.

I hope TechDirt doesnt have "axes" to my IP address.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2010 @ 6:05am

I don't get it
How can these "defamation" and "libel" laws even exist? The constitution is VERY, VERY clear. SHALL MAKE NO LAW does not provide any wiggle room.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ray Trygstad (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 2:57pm

Especially if you're stupid...
"...it's better to just shrug it off than filing a lawsuit, drawing a lot more attention to the mean things... and anything else that might get attention" which of course is particularly true when you might be drawing attention to the facts that a) apparently you don't know your own business very well and b) you appear to be stupid.

This is only an opinion, though; nothing actionable here. Move along now, there's nothing more to see here.

BTW, I have lawyer jokes too: PondScumandLawyers.com.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Creative Visualization, 4 Nov 2010 @ 9:25am

Defamation
It is a very comfortable situation for the lawyer. He knows he cant sue, but after all what can he lose.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Stephane Beladaci (profile), 12 Dec 2013 @ 5:54pm

Facebook negligence, consumer abuse and teen suicide
I think I discovered a related series of abuses. As an engineer, I also discovered significant loopholes and failures in Facebook's safety measures. Make sure to read my comments on this post: https://www.facebook.com/flexengineer/posts/10151832721485679
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Mar 2017 @ 11:32am

fuck that excuse. facebook should not be protected from not protecting facebook users
[ link to this | view in chronology ]