anonrerising

DA

I agree with you. Running a drama site/blog requires responsibility, and they aren't taking any. Not only are they willing to potentially cause major harm by leaving posts up, but they don't seem to care about potential legal repercussions.

If someone is seriously harmed by a post that was purposefully left up, people can report that to authorities. Tumblr can turn over information to authorities too if deemed serious enough. Having that policy up is gonna be evidence if such thing happens, and the law isn't gonna go easy on them if they see it.

It's not worth hurting someone or getting into legal trouble for some salt y'all.

Lets rephase this imaginary scenario that you've come up with in your head. A newspaper publishes a truthful story about a crime an individual was proven to have done. A group of people read the newspaper and decide that they want to harass the individual due to those actions. This individual harms themself as a result.

Do you really think that the newspaper is the one going to get in trouble here? Not the people actually doing the illegal act of harassment?

I don't disagree with some of the moral arguments being discussed in this thread but I think it's really ridiculous to act like a tumblr blog about flightrising drama is going to get anyone in legal trouble. In particular when they're not doing anything illegal. Against Tumblr TOS? Probably. But there are tons of drama blogs related to pet sites hosted on Tumblr and nothing ever gets done about those.

DA

Yeknow, I agree with the other anon. Newspaper outlets have legal teams to protect themselves, due to high coverage of crime stories (so does tumblr but they aren't newspaper typically), but yeknow who doesn't? People that run drama blogs, they likely don't have the funding for it.

If someone were to be seriously injured or dies, and there's clear evidence that the source was from harassing messages, which originated from a drama blog, what do you do? Investigate the harassers *and* the drama blog. The policy is evidence and doesn't look stellar.

It's not that farfetched. Investigators have to cover every little thing, and that includes the blog, yeknow? Posts might not break tos itself, so tumblr might not remove them, but it could still lead to some really crappy things happening, especially when you consider alot of the players of FR (many vulnerable crowds). The behavior of people is what could land them in trouble. People like to act like lemmings sometimes.

They can sue or investigate all they want, they're gonna have a hard time proving any fault, especially if said blog makes it clear they don't condone action outside of the blog. Tumblr and Dreamwidth itself would likely be covered under Section 230 - I'm not a lawyer, but I could see an argument being made for a submissions-based blog as well.

If the moderators of ARR or SMR or any new blogs were posting or allowing submissions that directed action against a user or provided private information (like telling people to send them messages, or posting their address, or so on), then maybe they'd be argued to have some culpability. But if we're just talking about someone sending in a screenshot of Username8374 from Earth saying some dumb shit in public on the forums or in a Discord server, and going 'look at this idiot' - I highly doubt there'd be much to pursue against the blog in such a case, even if someone decided on their own to be a nitwit and start bothering Username8374. Especially if it's a post with proof of whatever the user said or did, and can't be argued as a defamation case.

There's a discussion to be had about the morality of not removing such posts, sure - but legally speaking, I'd be surprised to see the blogs themselves get in any trouble.

not one of the other anons that actually wrote about it in any of these threads, but i've attempted too, and i had a note outlining why, and named the original dr in it. in my case, it only took one hateful message to send 14 year old me over the edge. those anons actually have some ground to stand on. it was basically a "hey [player from flight] has a strange fest submission, i don't think it fits the theme" and i'll admit, it didn't fit the flight theme, looking back. but there was no reason for someone send me a hateful message talking about my submission after that post went up. once you throw hate speech into the mix, then section 230 doesn't protect them anymore, since hate speech is a crime.

Let me preface this by saying that I am genuinely sorry you went through that - you didn't deserve to be harassed over something like that, and I truly hope you're in a better place and have a support network.

That said, something like that wouldn't fall under hate speech - hate speech is generally going to be on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. And as unfair as it may seem, even hate speech is protected to a degree by the First Amendment (I am speaking of American law here - I don't know how it would be handled in other countries) and Section 230 still provides protection to the platform it's posted to (as well as allowing the moderation and removal of said speech without repercussion.) What was originally posted to DR wasn't hate speech - people are allowed to express their opinions or criticism.

SA

That said, I'm on the side of 'some things should be removed at request, others deserve to stay up, depending on content' - your situation is exactly the circumstance I believe a post should be removed. You having a fest skin that someone doesn't like or whatever harms absolutely no one. Frankly, it's not even the sort of thing I'm on drama blogs to see - if I don't like an accent I just go on with my day because it doesn't affect or offend me. If you're uncomfortable with it being up or receiving harassment because of it, it should be taken down if you request because leaving it up does absolutely nothing. Whereas a post documenting someone's scamming behavior or bigoted views serves as a warning against that person, whose actions can actually affect someone else, and allow rational people to block and move on (which is all that should be done - no messaging, no harassment, no posting on their threads - just block them).

DA (original anon that brought potential legal issues, and you brought up some solid points in the other comments, so scratch that whole thing anyway lol)

Wow the thread kind of devolved(?) a bit while I was out. Sorry about that o.o"

I think they may have meant they received a hate speech message in response to the festival submission, not the actual submission to DR (because otherwise, the submission may have been removed/not posted?). All assuming American law, as well. Regardless of what it was, it's still a shitty situation all around, and festival submission anon: I'm sorry that happened to you. You didn't deserve to get harassed over a festival submission. I hope that you're managing as well as can be.

In response to your other comment, you do bring up some good points, and I do agree as well. Some things absolutely should be removed, but other things should stay up. I wholeheartedly agree with you about the festival submission anon. I regularly get pings for UMAs that technically fit my preferences (say, occult), but aren't actually my taste due to artistic style. I simply ignore them and move on. Why on earth can't people do the same thing on salt blogs? When it comes to actually affecting other users negatively, like scams, then absolutely. Call them out, but there's no need to harass them. I feel like users don't exactly understand salt blogs well sometimes (and I clearly didn't understand legal stuff either).

Just because you aren't charged with a crime or held legally responsible for something, doesn't mean that there aren't any consequences. Investigations are invasive. And lets be real, if we're debating the morality of whether drama blog owners are responsible when someone is harassed, you can bet your ass the general public will have an opinion. Reputations can't always be repaired.

Anyone can say, "I'm not a lawyer, but this is covered under section blah blah blah." You still need someone to actually make that case for you if it goes to court. Whether you are in the wrong or not, that fight is going to require a lawyer. That means time and money.

Obviously this whole conversation is hypothetical, but that's a whole lot of hypothetical shit that can impact your real life...and all for the sake of hosting yet another pit for people to fling garbage into.

There are lawyers who would take a case like that pro-bono just out of principal - people really love the First Amendment. And that's assuming Tumblr/Dreamwidth/Whatever is obligated to turn over information on the (anonymous) blog operators in the first place - which would require a reasonable legal precedent. 'This blog posts mean things' isn't going to be enough to get that. An investigator worth their salt isn't going to waste their time on things they know are already a dead end.

The original discussion wasn't even about the legal risks of running drama blogs, it was about the moral obligation to remove or keep up a post someone wanted removed. There's hypothetical risks in everything - I could be run over by a car tomorrow, but I'm still gonna leave my house anyway, because I can logically consider how likely that risk actually is. If someone is worried about the extremely unlikely hypothetical legal risks of running a drama blog, they probably wouldn't be running one in the first place.

Dreamwidth and Tumblr are absolved because the law was put into place because they can't vet each submission before posting. A blog that reads and decides what to post is different.

Also, I'm more on morality and possibly getting the Tumblr banned.

Fair point, I didn’t think of it like that. You’re most likely correct in that regard. I’d still argue the blog itself is safe from legal ramifications because as mean as it is at times, there’s nothing illegal about talking shit about people on or off the internet. Gossip magazines and later gossip blogs have existed forever. If the blog isn’t allowing posts through that actually incite violence or action against a user, there’s nothing illegal about what they do.

You probably could try to get the blog banned if you really wanted (which is probably not easy as you think - I guarantee a least a few of those who have been posted about have probably tried to get Tumblr/whoever to remove the post or ban the blog, and as far as I know, all the FR drama blogs are still around. Only the original DR is gone, and they closed their own blog down - they weren't banned. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that FR themselves have tried to get at least the original DR taken down.) You’re just unlikely to get anyone arrested or charged with a crime over it. Like I said, if the owners were actually worried about getting in trouble over a post they allow, they probably wouldn’t be running the blog in the first place, so it’s safe to assume they’ve accepted any potential risks.

it's shockingly difficult to get anyone to do anything about online harassment unless you have a ton of evidence of an actual specific law being broken and a great lawyer.

i learned this the hard way when i and some friends were doxxed (eg phone number and address posted on twitter with the intent of getting a mob to harass us; my friend got drop calls on her phone and had to get a new number) and we found that doxxing is amazingly, only illegal in the state of california, meaning both parties have to be in that state in order to take action.

i found out where the person who doxxed us lived and called the police dept there and as the person was taking down my info i was like, yeah no nothing is going to come of this lol they have no idea what's going on. the only other thing i could do is submit a complaint ticket to some federal agency which i never heard from and didn't expect to amount to anything.

SA, hit reply too fast

the thought of anyone getting arrested or charged with a crime for running a drama blog is ludicrous to me for this reason. i don't think they have anything to worry about and neither does anyone else involved in all this drama stuff, for that matter.

It'll be a hell of a lot easier to get it banned with actual user names attached to drama, as it can be seen as inciting harassment against specific people. They get away because x from flight is not specific.

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