[OT] Liability of Moderator

[Chris]

On Tuesday, 8 October 2013 at 11:28:12 UTC, Dicebot wrote:
> On Tuesday, 8 October 2013 at 10:34:23 UTC, Chris wrote:
>> A short OT question: A friend of mine wants to set up a forum 
>> or mailing list and would like to know to which extent the 
>> moderator or owner of the forum is liable, if some random 
>> troll or member puts libelous, insulting or racist remarks on 
>> the forum. I guess it depends mainly on national laws, but is 
>> there some general "I'm not responsible for anything"-clause 
>> in the terms & conditions that subscribers have to accept. If 
>> not, it would be very dangerous to set up a forum or mailing 
>> list. Thanks for any hints, links or tricks.
>
> Completely up to national laws and their actual enforcement. 
> And terms of service that go against local laws never have any 
> juridical power.

Yep, I thought so too. However, I wonder if there is something 
that saves the moderator's a**e, else we wouldn't have so many 
forums all over the world. There are countries (like GB and the 
Republic of Ireland) that have very strict libel laws. Imagine 
the comments under newspaper articles, if you could take the 
newspaper to court for the bullsh*t some people write (libelous, 
racist, insulting), there would be an avalanche of lawsuits (if 
it's just to get some money).