Ray Ring

Senior Editor

I guess even the Internet is not infinite. Its apparently unbounded free speech has limits.

We’re discovering that in cases such as, Google’s decision to censor its searches within China to please the Chinese government.

Now comes the revelation that bloggers are getting sued by people they write about, for libel and invasion of privacy.

USA Today reports the first case of a blogger known to have lost a libel suit. That blogger, a self-described “muckraker,” has been ordered to pay $50,000 to a guy he alleged was corrupt.

USA Today sums up the trend with some shocking yet amusing language:

In the past two years, more than 50 lawsuits stemming from postings on blogs and website message boards have been filed across the nation.

… The lawsuits are challenging a mind-set that has long surrounded blogging: that most bloggers essentially are “judgment-proof” because they — unlike traditional media such as newspapers, magazines and television outlets — often are ordinary citizens who don’t have a lot of money. Recent lawsuits … have been aimed not just at cash awards but also at silencing (the bloggers).

… Robert Cox, founder and president of the Media Bloggers Association, which has 1,000 members, says the recent wave of lawsuits means that bloggers should bone up on libel law. “It hasn’t happened yet, but soon, there will be a blogger who is successfully sued and who loses his home,” he says. “That will be the shot heard round the blogosphere.”

Egads. The shot heard round the blogosphere. Guess that’s where I’m sitting as I type this, somewhere within the said sphere, keeping my head down when I hear loud noises.

USA Today goes on:

At its best, the blogosphere represents the ultimate in free speech by giving voice to millions. … (It) also is the Internet’s Wild West, a rapidly expanding frontier town with no sheriff. It’s a place where both truth and “truthiness” thrive, to use the satirical word coined by comedian Stephen Colbert as a jab at politicians for whom facts don’t matter.

Nearly two blogs are created every second, according to Technorati, a San Francisco firm that tracks more than 53 million blogs. Besides forming online communities in which people share ideas, news and gossip and debate issues of the day, blogs empower character assassins and mischief makers.

… “People take advantage of the anonymity to say things in public they would never say to anyone face-to-face,” Cox says.

… Even so, Cox thinks the chief danger in legal disputes over what’s said on the Internet is the potential chilling effect it could have on free speech.

Actually it’s a good heads-up. Those of us who aim to do respectable blogs need to operate carefully. As for me, I still intend to provide some analysis, a few wisecracks (some inevitably lame), calling shots here and there, trying to clarify whatever I write about — all within the overall goal of accuracy.

Enough said.