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Technology & Innovation — August 19, 2009

Note to Self: Don’t Call Anyone “Skank” Online

Jessica Liebman

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There’s a certain Wild West mentality that reigns supreme on the internet. That could all change with a precedent-setting court ruling on a recent name-calling incident. Former Australian Vogue cover girl Liskula Cohen won a legal battle to unmask an anonymous blogger who referred to her as a “skank” on his “Skanks in NYC” blog. The entry, which Cohen asserted was defamatory, ridiculed the former model as a “40-something” who “may have been hot 10 years ago.” Justice Joan Madden of the Manhattan supreme court agreed with Cohen, rejecting the defendant’s claim that blogs “serve as a modern-day forum for conveying personal opinions, including invective and ranting,” and should not be taken as fact. Google has been ordered to reveal the name of the blogger at fault. Do you think cyberbullying should be protected online?

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