Mentioned this in another thread.
I am starting to believe that it should be a crime (Misdemeanor) to accuse someone of a felony via public media (Newspaper, magazines, radio, TV, social media) without any direct evidence to support your beliefs.
It is a defense that enough evidence exists for a reasonable DA to at least open an investigation into it. It is also a defense if you believe yourself to be a witness to or the direct victim of such a crime and have talked to authorities but they have not charged. I allow this because it allows wronged victims and ignored crimes to reach the public AND because a person who claims to be a direct witness also risks impacts on their life if they can be shown to be lying. So while this doesn't eliminate people lying about being a victim, it tends to discourage it. However someone who just throws out "So and So is a pedo" doesn't face the same level of scrutiny.
To me there is a clear victim here, the person you've accused. You get enough people to believe you and this can very negatively impact their life and could be very dangerous to them. This also negatively impacts the discourse in this country while offering no positive value. The fact that media is less scrutinized now leads to this law becoming more necessary. Before if you threw out an accusation and tried to put it in the newspaper classifieds the newspaper fearing lawsuit probably wouldn't run it. Similar thing for TV, magazines etc. But now with social media they don't appear to be held to the same standard, perhaps because if the difficulty of policing all of their content. Regardless we now live in a world where you can throw an accusation out there, have millions of people hear or read about your accusations and offer no direct evidence to support your accusations.
Most of this would generally at least for private persons be covered by defamation but that's a civil charge and not everyone has the time, money, or courage to sue someone for something like this. Plus civil charges tend to take too much damn time and some people are just judgement proof anyways. Look how long it was between Alex Jones throwing out there that Sandy Hook wasn't real to a final resolution in the case. Just got resolved now and the shooting and Alex Jones's accusations happened 12 years ago and none of those people are going to collect anything close to what the judgement says they are due. Criminal consequences for this behavior can shut you down much quicker.
I am starting to believe that it should be a crime (Misdemeanor) to accuse someone of a felony via public media (Newspaper, magazines, radio, TV, social media) without any direct evidence to support your beliefs.
It is a defense that enough evidence exists for a reasonable DA to at least open an investigation into it. It is also a defense if you believe yourself to be a witness to or the direct victim of such a crime and have talked to authorities but they have not charged. I allow this because it allows wronged victims and ignored crimes to reach the public AND because a person who claims to be a direct witness also risks impacts on their life if they can be shown to be lying. So while this doesn't eliminate people lying about being a victim, it tends to discourage it. However someone who just throws out "So and So is a pedo" doesn't face the same level of scrutiny.
To me there is a clear victim here, the person you've accused. You get enough people to believe you and this can very negatively impact their life and could be very dangerous to them. This also negatively impacts the discourse in this country while offering no positive value. The fact that media is less scrutinized now leads to this law becoming more necessary. Before if you threw out an accusation and tried to put it in the newspaper classifieds the newspaper fearing lawsuit probably wouldn't run it. Similar thing for TV, magazines etc. But now with social media they don't appear to be held to the same standard, perhaps because if the difficulty of policing all of their content. Regardless we now live in a world where you can throw an accusation out there, have millions of people hear or read about your accusations and offer no direct evidence to support your accusations.
Most of this would generally at least for private persons be covered by defamation but that's a civil charge and not everyone has the time, money, or courage to sue someone for something like this. Plus civil charges tend to take too much damn time and some people are just judgement proof anyways. Look how long it was between Alex Jones throwing out there that Sandy Hook wasn't real to a final resolution in the case. Just got resolved now and the shooting and Alex Jones's accusations happened 12 years ago and none of those people are going to collect anything close to what the judgement says they are due. Criminal consequences for this behavior can shut you down much quicker.
