Can someone avoid all accusations of libel or defamation (not sure what the difference is) by just posting a generic disclaimer on every post they make that this is their opinion, and includes speculation, and stuff like that?
You can't even get around it with negation, like "John Doe -- who is surely not a child molester, even though many people think he is."
The simple way to think about libel (which is the written form of slander, which are both types of defamation) is that if you publish false information about a person or business, and that false information causes actual damages, then it is potentially libelous, and you can't disclaim it away or edit it away or do verbal gymnastics to try to wriggle out of that liability.
Comments
Can someone avoid all accusations of libel or defamation (not sure what the difference is) by just posting a generic disclaimer on every post they make that this is their opinion, and includes speculation, and stuff like that?
No. Courts see through that.
You can't even get around it with negation, like "John Doe -- who is surely not a child molester, even though many people think he is."
The simple way to think about libel (which is the written form of slander, which are both types of defamation) is that if you publish false information about a person or business, and that false information causes actual damages, then it is potentially libelous, and you can't disclaim it away or edit it away or do verbal gymnastics to try to wriggle out of that liability.
Defamation is false speech published to others without requisite care for the truth.
Libel is written defamation. Slander is spoken defamation.