Court Backs Mean Message Board Commentators' Rights To Do Just That

February 8, 2008

Yesterday, a appeals court judge ruled that the identity of message board commenters is protected speech- even if those commenters are anonymous and they say mean things about companies or individuals.

The ruling stems from a case in which Florida-based drug company SFBC's now-former CEO Lisa Krinsky, he company, and 10 of her employees were lambasted on a Yahoo! message board for "a management consisting of boobs, losers and crooks," and with one poster (Doe 6) describing Krinsky when he said "I will reciprocate felatoin [sic] with Lisa even though she has fat thighs, a fake medical degree, 'queefs' and has poor feminine hygiene."

Ouch.

Krinsky filed the lawsuit asking that Yahoo! be required to reveal the names of those commenters.

Even though the judge appeared to be sympathetic to the nastiness of the lambasting Krinsky and colleagues received, these comments were not assertions of "actual fact" and were not actionable under the provisions of Florida's defamation statutes.