What do you think about this Yale Students' Lawsuit?

Question

""Women named Jill and Hillary should be raped."

Those are the words of "AK-47" -- a poster to the college-admissions web forum AutoAdmit.com. AK-47 was one of a handful of students heaping misogynist scorn on women attending the nations' top law schools in 2007, in posts so vile they spurred a national debate on the limits of online anonymity, and an unprecedented federal lawsuit aimed at unmasking and punishing the posters.

Now lawyers for two female Yale Law School students have ascertained AK-47's real identity, along with the identities of other AutoAdmit posters, who all now face the likely publication of their names in court records -- potentially marking a death sentence for the comment trolls' budding legal careers even before the case has gone to trial.

The unmasking of the posters marks a milestone in a rare legal challenge to the norms of online commenting..."

Whole article at:

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2008/07/autoadmit

Answer 1

I think the comments are awful and I'm glad there are consequences.

Would you support women being arrested for similar speech?

We have all seen the famous feminist quotes. Should these "leading" feminist writers be arrested, should their contributions be taken off the GWS curriculum?

Or should the law be gender specific in relation to hate speech?

Answer 2

I say sue the h**l out of those posters, NOT Anthony Ciolli.  Why pin the blame on a lowly administrator when it is the posters who are at fault?  I honestly doubt that he is being PAYED for this job..

And if anyone else feels differently, pay attention to the men and women of the GWS forum...and yes I said both men and women.  If Yahoo's administrators are giving violations left and right, but one is missed, why blame them for missing one question?  It's your job, as a participant in these forums, to report such behavior.

Answer 3

It just proves that your words online are not "just words". They can be taken as serious threats and effect your life.  I think they should be.  People should not be able to go online and have their harmful words protected by a screen.

Answer 4

Feminists, liberals and other thought police will not be satisfied until anyone who deviates from the approved 'thought' will be sent to gulags to be 're-educated'...but they will never get this perfect world they long for...because people will think what they want...and this character was getting his anger out harmlessly...or would they rather he actually rape someone?

Answer 5

Yes, the names of posters of hate speech should be made public, whether the hate speech is about women, Blacks, Jews, g**s, or any other group.

By hate speech, I am referring to comments about raping, killing, or otherwise physically harming another person just because that person is not a man, White, Christian, straight, or whatever.

Answer 6

What they posted was not illegal!!  There was no last name used, no direct threat, and no intention to encourage people to rape them.  Ludicrous.  What they posted was idiotic but the best way to deal with it.....don't give the idiots the attention!  In a world where people claim women don't need protection, people sure are asking for a lot ofi t.  I could say "Guys named Larry and John deserve to be castrated" and I'm sure I'd still get my law degree.

Answer 7

I'm all for it.

Many female tech bloggers have been driven away from blogging because...for no reason other than the fact that they are women working in technology....they receive violent threats, threats against their children, and DAILY rivers of hate mail from so-called "men." One university did a study...posted a blog with identical opinions and material, one under a man's name and photo and one under a woman's, and the woman's blog got much more hateful, sexual and belittling comments than the man's.

Misogyny is a virus in the Western world. We focus on it in the third world, but it's just as prevalent...albeit more hidden and insidious...in the West.

Answer 8

Cyber bullying is real. The people who say that type of garbage online MEAN it offline.

Say what you mean and mean what you say - online and off. How are we supposed to determine who is actually capable of carrying out the threats they write on the internet and who is not?

I've had a few emails that have literally made me step back from the computer and say, "Whoa". People don't go up to people IN PERSON and say the type of sh*t that goes on in forums and on Yahoo and especially in this category.

For future harassers: Don't test me. This article is a step in the right direction for cowards who threaten others behind their monitors. There are children who post here. You never know when a comment will make or break someone. I don't think it's a waste of the court's time. The only people who would think that are the ones who want to make threats towards people they don't even know. Why should they be protected by an anonymous user name anymore?

Answer 9

Well, as an internet troll of sorts, this kind of thing bugs me. However, all good trolls should refrain from making what can be construed as terroristic threats, and wishing rape on someone probably falls into that category.

Answer 10

Hey great idea! Maybe we can start taking legal action about people who do seriously sexist things, like spread discriminatory laws around the world (see Section 4 here, especially re UNIFEM) or make up lies about rape statistics and then shape laws around them (see Section 3) http://www.freewebs.com/feminism-evaluat...

Answer 11

That is a tough one, but you can easily see where this one is going:

"Now they're asking the judge to give them additional time to try and determine the identities of the remaining defendants, who are currently being sued under their AutoAdmit handles: among others, PaulieWalnuts, Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey, The Ayatollah of Rock-n-Rollah, Patrick Bateman and HitlerHitlerHitler."

They now want to know every ones real name and will go on a witch hunt to sue anyone that they had a disagreement with.

Answer 12

Wow. You know what is so interesting about this, this is exactly what one regular poster here has been saying for some time ~ that these type of deeply misogynistic comments and attitudes expressed disruptively and 'anonymously' on the internet may just jump back on these boys later in life.

Obviously advocating violence is unacceptable, so perhaps the students will have a case. One to watch, certainly!

Cheers :-)

Answer 13

Transparency is essential for justice.

Expose and punish the fV(k$rs!

Answer 14

How do I sue to unmask the man hating feminists who post here?

Answer 15

As an attorney, I knew this could be done.  It's about time.  No more anonymity for the cowards.  Publication of words requires that you obey the law.  The Internet and anonymity should not be an excuse to harass people and break the law.

Answer 16

Absolutely. Freedom of speech is one thing e.g. 'all men/women are idiots' but saying 'X should be raped and killed' is advocating violence. These people should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. As Devil's busy says, it is different here (though I still have a file of threats against me saved) but people's right to freedom of speech stops when it forces others to live in fear for their lives.

Khan - has a feminist on here threatened to torture and kill you? Really?

Answer 17

I agree with Irish Amber are women so weak that they need protection in every aspect of life, some of the women on here get a load of hassle and you don't see them crying to the courts, they should have just told them to f*ck off!

Answer 18

That was pretty stupid; file a lawsuit against someone simply because of what they said online.   Those women need to grow a thicker skin and stop being so overly sensitive.

More suppression of 'freedom of speech'..

Answer 19

I think what we are missing here is that the threats could very well be real threats that can happen.  Unlike a poster here from who said he wanted him and his friends to rape me to put me in my place; he doesn't know who I am or where I am; the actual threat has no real chance of happening.  These posters know who the women are that they are saying they are going to sodomize and they know where they are.  It could easily go from threat to reality and this women should not have to fear unknown attackers.  Since they posted these women's real names they have made themselves liable for slander.

I think it is sad that so many people feel that these men should be able to slander these girls, threaten them so that they feel scared to go to the gym, and think that it is harmless.  Freedom of speech is one thing but instigating fear isn't a freedom.

Answer 20

I would definitely define that line as hate speech, and there should be no tolerance of that in a public forum. A mere disagreement is one thing; advocating rape, even in jest, is a whole other ball game. But a lawsuit might be stretching it just a tad.

Answer 21

Hitler said that Jews were 'an inferior race that breed like vermin'....

Violence starts with words! Just because we have this notion of 'free speach' does not mean we should allow this kind of verbal violence to escalate and breed..... We know from history that people are highly impressionable and that words like this are dangerous.

Hitler blamed the jews for the war he started - sound familiar?

Perhaps the jews should have 'grown a thicker skin and stopped being so overly-sensitive'! (Gun Fanatic)

Answer 22

Students like "AK-47" are cowards. That's why they hide behind a computer screen. I'll bet they would go away if their names appeared on their messages every time they post them. I don't feel sorry for them in the least and it doesn't bother me if their legal careers never take off. They should have known better than to post such hateful and childish messages they would never have had the courage to tell the women to their faces.

The point is, if you have a grievance against someone, tell that person to her face. Don't hide behind a computer screen and post childish messages under an assumed name. That's being an immature coward and it shows you would not make a good lawyer.

Answer 23

Just reading that comment, I don't know if it deserves a full out lawsuit, but I'm definitely not against it.

The people who wrote that phrase obviously are small-minded men who are as dumb as a rock.  I actually think saying something along those lines could be seen as threatening and have charges against them from the police department.

Obviously they should have never said that, and I'm glad they are getting punished for it. But maybe we are a bit too far on this one. Possibly posting an equally offensive phrase saying something along the lines of "All men must be killed" should have done the trick. Demonstrating how stupid and childish the post was, to begin with.