Right to free speech on Yahoo groups?

Question

I own a chat group with a resticted membership. The topif the other day that people were discussing was dentists.

Someone said a dentists name and told of a bad experience with him. Someone in group, took the info to the dentist, who then joined (anonymously) and found the messages about him. He said he reported me to yahoo for violation of TOS and is threatening me as owner of group with legal action if I do not remove the entire thread?

Can anyone tell me? Is this a TOS violation? I know we had still have freedom of speech per the Constitution of the USA, but what about Yahoo?

Answer 1

Read the terms of service here:

http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/uto...

I think that depending on what was said, someone could claim that something was libelous or defamatory.

Freedom of speech does not mean people can say anything at all that they want to. Your right to free speech ends exactly at the point when it infringes another person's rights.

If you are not sure if something is defamatory, you could probably write to yahoo and ask them about the specific case.

I think that the person who posted another person's name, if they did not do anything illegal, and if they did not do anything against the terms of service, minimally did something unwise. They should remove their own post. What were they thinking to put another person's name online?

Answer 2

He can try to sue you but would have to prove you maliciously tried to harm him or his reputation. If what was said his true, it's just word of mouth advertising against him.

Answer 3

freedom of speech really doesn't apply to yahoo groups.

if the member was speaking of their own experience, they have that right to share it any where. how else do people know about such things? there are also plenty of sites that list good to bad dentists and doctors.

as long as the member was not defacing the dentists, there's nothing to worry about. even if there was bases for a lawsuit, the dentists would have to sue the member who posted, not the owner of the group.

Answer 4

Yes, you have the right to free speech and I doubt this person is willing to put in the legal costs involved with legal action. He may however be able to sue you for defamation of character if you specifically named him and specifically identified yourself and it costs him business or hurts his reputation. Since it is a private group I would highly doubt that this will hold up in court or even make it to court. He would likely not win in litigation, but he can at least scare you by mentioning litigation. I would remove him, remove the post, and place legal disclaimers in the chat room that the moderator is held harmless for content.