Posted on 11/18/2009 9:38:35 AM PST by steve-b
A backlash against anonymous commenters and trolls seems to be underway. Only last month, a court case was settled where anonymous commenters ended up having to pay big fines to the women who they defiled using vulgar, derogatory remarks on an internet forum. And previously, an anonymous blogger in the modeling industry was forced to reveal her identity after numerous malicious posts about a colleague showed up on her blog. Now the latest scandal in this new trend of "giving the trolls what they deserve" is causing a controversy all of its own. And this time, the nasty comment didn't just lead to an embarrassing reveal or a heavy fine, it cost someone their job.
A One-Word Comment Cost a School Employee His Job
A vulgar comment was made by a reader of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's website on Friday on an article about the strangest things you've ever eaten. The headline was practically asking for a juvenile response and, thanks to the anonymity of the internet, that's exactly what happened.... Of course, the site's moderators quickly deleted the comment but it soon reappeared--obviously this juvenile was intent on having their say.
But this time, instead of just deleting the comment in question, the site's director of social media, Kurt Greenbaum, did a little sleuthing too. He found that the commenter's IP address was coming from a local school....
[H]e probably thought he was simply tattle-telling on a naughty student who would learn a valuable lesson about internet anonymity and would have to sit through a week's detention or something of the like. Instead, he cost a school employee his job...
Crossing the Line? Or Justice Served?
The question being hotly debated now is did Greenbaum go too far? Or did the commenter get what they deserved?...
(Excerpt) Read more at readwriteweb.com ...
Great if they were paying into the Teachers Union or the SEIU, but outside of they stepped way over the line. Fairly partisan of me isn’t it?
The good ol’ nanny state strikes again.
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