Cost of Preventing Online Libel

Karl Walling, the strategy professor falsely accused — via the Internet and YouTube — of advocating rape in a videoed lecture, warns, “It will take careful thought to save academics from this sort of outrage in the future.” Walling, from the United States Naval War College, says libels are bound to be increasingly common in the YouTube age and a threat to all professors. He notes that a gatekeeper now controls video access at his institution, “though perhaps at the regrettable price that recordings of important lectures will be less freely available in the future. Whether gatekeepers are worth this price needs to be examined carefully.”