Getting slandered: Running for office carries risk

With the meteoric rise of anonymous Facebook pages, people running for public office now carry a risk if their opponent is willing to fight dirty, because many defamatory things can be written about them and there is nothing they can do to stop it.

This thought came to mind while looking at a local FB page that was recently excoriating one local guy running for office.

He has had affairs with multiple women, according to the anonymous FB page, and has gotten a married woman pregnant, got caught by the local PD in his car with his pants off, outside a local restaurant, sitting next to yet another married woman, and to top it off, he told the cops that his wife knows about his promiscuity.

Not sure how many times the anonymous FB post was spread around, but surely a lot, given its salacious content.

“Hey, did you hear about… guy’s a sex maniac.”

There are no criminal complaints to go with the post, no police reports of any kind, no civil filings, even though according to the same poster, multiple women have also complained about this politico’s “inappropriate behavior.”

He’s a Swinger?

According to the anonymous FB page, though, with nothing to back up the claims, this candidate is sleeping with women right and left, admits he’s a swinger but his wife doesn’t care, and when he’s not sleeping around, he’s abusing women in an inappropriate way.

If the politician has older kids, no doubt, they’ll hear about it at school.

For anyone running for public office today, it’s never a certainty that this same sort of thing won’t happen to them.

“Honey, I swear what they’re writing isn’t true.”

Still, doubts can be created. And there, potentially, goes the marriage.

Facebook protects the people who created the page, and without a lot of time and luck, court subpoenas, attorney fees, there is no way to get the page and/ or post taken down unless Facebook responds to reports that the info is defamatory, which pits free speech against defamation.

Nor is there any way to prove who is behind the posts.

On its own page, Facebook defines defamation:

“Defamation is generally a false statement of fact that harms someone’s reputation. If you would like to report a post you believe is defamatory, you can fill out this form.”

Oh, great, there is a form to fill out. Wonder where that will end up? In someone’s spam folder, a Facebook employee working out of New Delhi?

“Please note that, due to local laws, this reporting form may not be available in your location. In addition, filling out a defamation report through this form doesn’t guarantee that we will restrict access to the reported content.”

Of course not. “Certain statements may not be defamatory but may still go against our Community Standards for bullying or harassment, for example. Learn how to report violations of our Standards.”

Such is the sad state of local politics today and the ways in which social media has changed the political landscape.

“In this next post, let’s have him sleeping with two women at the same time. Can we say he also uses drugs? Why not?”

Suing for defamation of character? Libel? A thing of the past.