In the US you usually have to prove that the person was intentionally lying and that they were doing so to cause you harm. It’s incredibly hard to prove in court
This is true if you are a public figure (which Hasan is, so your statement is correct). The legal terminology used is “actual malice” (the threshold one must cross to prove it for public figures) vs “negligence” the threshold for private citizens.
Note this doesn’t mean people can just talk shit out their ass all day from a platform about even public figures, but the bar the public figure must meet to prove actual malice is significant. Personally, if I were the judge, the intent is met. I don’t think the average judge would though. It would probably require multiple hit pieces with very specific repeated lies (not a lawyer, not an expert, just my opinion, etc.)
For “normal” people who aren’t gov officials, entertainers, business owners, etc. if these people doxx them and then smear them it’s 100% actionable. Proving they were simply negligent is pretty easy to do in a case like this. I imagine a lawyer would point out that they purposely sought out clips out of context with intent to show the defendant as an “antisemite” which means they also saw the massive amount of footage of the defendant specifically and repeatedly stating they are not antisemitic and here are the reasons, A, B, C. It wouldn’t take much to build a case to absolutely rip the faces off these dipshits because Hasan is careful in his speech. However, he doesn’t have the benefit of this easier bar to clear like we would. And we don’t have the benefit for bottomless pockets if we’re targeted. Unfortunately since the pro-Palestine movement is mostly younger, less wealthy people, building some sort of take down team of lawyers to sue these agencies and individuals (preferably the latter, imo, these demons deserve to be destitute) is probably not happening anytime relatively soon. But perhaps some day…
Is this kind of thing actionable? Seems like an open and shut case of libel to me he could take them to the cleaners right?
In the US you usually have to prove that the person was intentionally lying and that they were doing so to cause you harm. It’s incredibly hard to prove in court
This is true if you are a public figure (which Hasan is, so your statement is correct). The legal terminology used is “actual malice” (the threshold one must cross to prove it for public figures) vs “negligence” the threshold for private citizens.
Note this doesn’t mean people can just talk shit out their ass all day from a platform about even public figures, but the bar the public figure must meet to prove actual malice is significant. Personally, if I were the judge, the intent is met. I don’t think the average judge would though. It would probably require multiple hit pieces with very specific repeated lies (not a lawyer, not an expert, just my opinion, etc.)
For “normal” people who aren’t gov officials, entertainers, business owners, etc. if these people doxx them and then smear them it’s 100% actionable. Proving they were simply negligent is pretty easy to do in a case like this. I imagine a lawyer would point out that they purposely sought out clips out of context with intent to show the defendant as an “antisemite” which means they also saw the massive amount of footage of the defendant specifically and repeatedly stating they are not antisemitic and here are the reasons, A, B, C. It wouldn’t take much to build a case to absolutely rip the faces off these dipshits because Hasan is careful in his speech. However, he doesn’t have the benefit of this easier bar to clear like we would. And we don’t have the benefit for bottomless pockets if we’re targeted. Unfortunately since the pro-Palestine movement is mostly younger, less wealthy people, building some sort of take down team of lawyers to sue these agencies and individuals (preferably the latter, imo, these demons deserve to be destitute) is probably not happening anytime relatively soon. But perhaps some day…
I wasn’t aware of the public/private distinction, thanks!
I hate libel as an actual law. we should remove all libel laws
It quite literally is freeze peach to protect the ruling classes speech higher than a pleb