Legal action against Yahoo?

Question

Do you think legal action should be taken against Yahoo. By allowing people to post hate messages and by not removing them Yahoo is actively encouraging more of the same. Why does Yahoo need to wait for someone to report an abuse for some of the stuff posted here before they do anything? In fact 9 times out of 10 even when an abuse is reported they do nothing anyway. Do you think Yahoo should be more proactive as since they setup this forum isn't the onus on them to police it better? Your thoughts please, and make them loud.

Hey CB if you're not going to answer the question seriously ...f'uck off. Incidently why don't you ask someone from Singapore what CB means!

Kopking, good point.

Beerbelly you ask CB out on a date, you'd get on well together.

bopddbop, I like the suggestion. blocking IPs would be more effective. Great answer!

Mr Smarty Pants, there is a fine line between free speech, expressing your opinions that is and being instulting.

Helga, you're exactly the type of person I'm talking off. Your posts are always rude and offence, and half the time hateful.

Answer 1

Contraversy creates a boom for Yahoo, especially when questions relate to religion and morality. Have you noticed most homophobic questions attract about 40+ answers?

Yahoo wants a high volume of users answering and asking questions. Homophobic questions are popular. Questions asked by myself relating to sex all have been deleted. Why? people feel uncomfortable about two men having sex.

The majority of straights don't know any better because they don't want to know any better. Answering homophobic questions lets us defend ourselves and educate bigots. That can only be a good thing. Most people here are sensible. They know a homophobic question when they read it. I don't know about you, but I answer stupidly homophobic questions, not because I enjoy doing so, but because I feel it my duty to enlighten idiots.....

Answer 2

I think the way Yahoo polices this forum is disgusting. I have addressed the issue of the hate before. Since this is just the Internet I would just ignore it and move on. And frankly I am not one to report stuff--even if it is extremally disgusting and offensive.

Interestingly, I was violated for making a comment in a question "I realize gay bashers are idiots but..." The gay bashers complained and I was violated for "speaking disparagingly of members of the yahoo community." I posted a question on this which is in my profile if interested. Anyway it seems it is now unacceptable to call a bigot an idiot.

My big problem with all the hate and idiocy is that it is ruining the forum. If it was just some I would just move on. But it is prevelant. And I realize some people do sincerely feel a need to respond to the hate mongers and idiots and it is ruining the experience for the responders. Frankly, I have not been here for a few days--cuz there is so little real stuff--just all the garbage.

So I have suggested that yahoo should have someone monitoring this forum 24/7 for this sort of thing. The integrity of the forum is at stake. If a lawsuit would get them moving--then I say great.

Answer 3

I'm not sure that legal action against Yahoo would work. However, legal action against the users may be possible. There have been two cases, one in the US and one in the UK, where people have been convicted because of things they posted on the internet.

In the US case (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-10-internet-defamation-case_x.htm), a woman was awarded $11 million in a defamation case that was brought about by another woman essentially bad-mouthing her on the internet. On this particular forum, someone like Goldwing would perhaps have the best chance, since he's one who was impersonated and his impersonators have tried to convince others that he's a pedophile. This may be illegal or count as libel, in which case Yahoo may be considered an accessory.

In the UK, a man was sentenced to three years in prison (http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1889311,00.html) for posting racist messages on an internet board set up in memory of a young black murder victim. While the circumstances aren't exactly the same, they are definitely similar, and this kind of hate speech may be considered illegal in the UK, especially now that a legal precedent has been set. And again, Yahoo may be considered an accessory by leaving the hate speech up.

However, I'm not a lawyer. If you're serious, try contacting your local chapter of GLAAD and see if you can find a lawyer who will look at the situation and determine if there's a case. You could also try getting opinions from professors at law school, if there's one nearby, or maybe just contact a newspaper reporter for a local gay or liberal paper and see if they think there's a story here - chances are they'll speak with legal experts about the situation.

Answer 4

No, I don't think legal action should be taken against Yahoo. I truly do despise these hate messages, but in taking legal action against bigots for merely talking (typing in this case) you feed into their feeling that you're only trying to silence them because they're right. It's a dumb rationale, I know.

I do think, however, that this forum should be policed better. There should be a "three strikes, you're out" policy. And they should keep track of ISP numbers so that offenders can't just go and get a new account every time they're banned.

I think (and I could be wrong) that part of the problem may be that Yahoo only has a small number of employees to handle this. Also, people are people and we all have biases one way or the other. What is offensive to one person is not to another, so they may be getting bogged down by a lot of other complaints that are not valid. (Complaints about obvious hate messages are always valid, though.)

Answer 5

Yahoo needs to ban all identities from IP addresses that are constantly being used to clone many different screen names...XXON, XXON10, XXON_10, XXON 10, Olga, Helga, goldwing 110083, this creep must have had 50 screen names from the same IP, and it just goes on..as for me, I ignore all of it, he targets me and a few others...he/she is wasting their time....I don't give a sh*t. But the site has gone down hill and is worthless at this point. I have come to believe it is the moderator(s) themselves who are doing it...too much coincidence to be otherwise. If you look at the leaderboard, the moderators have 100,000 points or more, and the points seem to skyrocket weekly. I must say, that if this is the case, Yahoo folks have NO life what so ever. But, in reality, all you have to do is look at the askers profile..level one, no email, no points, no best answers...obvious that it is a tired, old queen who no one will have anything to do with, is bitter at the world, and thinks he is hurting others. He isn't ... he is just sitting in his own sh*t hour after hour, day in and day out. I can only assume he/she is unemployed, has no hope of getting any kind of job unless it is here at Yahoo, and you can bet they pay nothing..that is for sure. Good luck The real shame is on us...as long as idiots keep answering the same drivel day in and day out, the imposter at the other end is being entertained (not much of a life, wouldn't you say?) Only when gays here learn to ignore this sh*t will it slink back under the rock they/it came from. But, as usual, some people cannot resist firing back...waste of time and energy..total waste. And you can bet this answer will be reported by the creepette...it loves to report everything I write...sort of my claim to fame.

Answer 6

Yahoo is a wide Internet search engine. I doubt they are able to go through every single forum and check every single post to search for abuse, no matter how many people they have working. People are posting things left and right, they have no control over that.

By the way, I find it funny that you bring this up. I had just seen on another post where you told a kid he 1) was in a rude awakening for "dissing" God and 2) his mother and father were brother and sister. Oh yes, that is something God loves you for.

Answer 7

yes, I do agree. I actually think the solution is though, for most positive posts by all people. And for people to stop answering the questions. I mean there are different methods to stop this sort of behavior. But I do think if no one actually responded or actually read these questions, all the bigots and hate mongers could answer their own questions and perhaps create their own section. Rather, petition Yahoo to create another section for "bigots" and those with minimal brain capacity.
If people stop responding, or reading the questions, there would be no need to be offended. I mean, I personally never respond to their questions or even read them. I know what sort of person they are and I have heard it all before.

Answer 8

I agree with the fact that answers as well as questions insulting or promoting hate crimes should be removed. When I come to the LGBT section, I find mostly posts by people like Olga/Helga, Xxon10, and all other bigots. It just annoy me that Yahoo, even with people reporting it, takes long time to remove those hate messages and sometimes just don't do anything... I saw some posts that just made me sick...
Legal actions can be attempted since they don't respect their own set policies, and by seeing those hate messages sensitive teenagers can commit suicide, therefore it is endangerment of people's life to let those messages. No one asked them to do something like yahoo answers and it's public and regulated by them. Their own policy say too much stuff they don't enforced with people saying racist and bigot things. there have been a multiplication of people like Xxon10 coz Yahoo don't do anythin to their messages!

Answer 9

At the bottom of the page it says there are 123,125 questions posted. If you would like to put in a free service, then hire enough people to keep track of what is posted, you are perfectly welcome.
NOBODY from Yahoo! reads these questions unless they are reported.
This is a self policing website, and you are the police. Read very carefully the laws(terms of service) and get busy and enforce them.
I personally don't care what people put on here, even though is can be very disgusting. I don't waste my time on them, I answer legitimate questions, even though sometimes they seem stupid.

Answer 10

I don't think legal action is going to help- you agree to all their rules and stuff before they let you join, and I'm sure they would justify it in those terms if you did try to pursue that vein. I do agree with you, however, that the abuse isn't removed quickly enough, especially in this particular section.