Can a person be criminally or legally liable if they answer a question (in yahoo answers) and the answer is?

Question

wrong and causes injury or damage to someone or something? If so would it matter if the answer was intentionally deceptive?

I haven't been given, or given any wrong answers intentionally. I am just curious.

Answer 1

I'm thinking that Y!A would also have a responsibility in this and owe some sort of duty of care to every member, after all, we have signed a contract, however, they more than likely have some sort of clause in the contract we sign before we can join regarding this (i.e. Do not rely on information etc from this forum or Used at your own risk)

They also offer the opportunity to report and delete anything that offends or is incorrect etc etc.

Also, it has to be taken into account that you 'do not know' who is answering these questions, thus, how will you track them down in order to pursue any acts of liable acts or acts of deformation - its also an opinion based forum, thus, you have freedom of speech and if you speak the truth you can't be sued anyway and you certainly cannot be sued for your opinions.

Wouldnt it make PERFECT sense if we were taught Basic law, consumer rights, human rights etc etc at SCHOOL (Primary AND Secondary) so that we know our rights - so often people get away with stuff that if we knew any better we could do something about.

Im not into all this 'sue at the drop of a hairpin' or anything, but I know that Ive done a tiny bit of law at uni and I never realised that I had been ripped off so much by employers and stores because I was not aware of my basic rights. PUT 'BASIC LAW ON THE CURRICULUM' I SAY from Primary school right through to Secondary School (after all, if we can do 'Religious Education' then why can't we do LAW!?!?!) Even if to get just a 'beginners' understanding of the terminology etc of what the actual contracts you sign mean!!!!

You empower yourself when you know your rights!!!

Answer 2

Generally no -- for several reasons.

First, the general Yahoo Answers disclaimer of "use at your own risk" would apply -- and then any personal disclaimers the person happened to include. So, you have a problem with that person claiming that they had a valid reason to rely on the answer in the first place.

Second, the answers are generally anonymous -- so even identifying the answerer is problematic -- let alone getting a court to recognize jurisdiction over that person.

It is theoretically possible for someone who was intentionally deceptive, knew the answer would cause harm, intended the answer to be relied upon -- all of that, plus jurisdiction -- could be sued -- but it's a long long shot.

And that's only for civil liability -- criminal actions would be nearly impossible because of the protections of free speech -- so the person's answer would also not only need to be fraudulent -- it would also need to violate some criminal statute, such as criminal threatening or false advertising

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EDIT -- raichasays (above) also raises excellent points.

Answer 3

Probably not. This site is for entertainment purposes. It is known that people answering here are in many cases just stating an opinion, based on extremely limited information provided by the asker.

People who give you wrong answers usually do not intend to deceive you, they are merely wrong or have a different opinion.

If they do intentionally deceive you with the intent that you act on that information and to cause you damage, you would probably still have to show that it was "justified" for you to rely on the information you received from an anonymous source on the internet when you made an important decision.

Answer 4

It really depends on how you use the website. There may be a law in your country that may charge you an offense. In the Philippines, there is a law which tackles the rules on electronic evidences. Right now, there is a floating issue on electronic libel. The link below tackles the aforementioned issue which might answer your question:

http://jlp-law.com/blog/category/criminal-law/libel/

Answer 5

Bebe i be attentive to precisely what you advise. All those ta~tas... its only too plenty ta~ta for a guy like me to show... on my own. and that i've got in no way had to be a lesbian plenty till I got here to Y!A. plenty flesh... so little time to hoover... *seems up* aye aye aye... there is yet another one... "comfortable Kitty" ... I advise.. c'mon! i'm reminded of snapper at each and every turn! *seems down* "Yuffie" ~ choose I say greater?

Answer 6

The information you get here on Yahoo is worth exactly what you pay for it.