(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — An online forum letting teenagers post insults and slander was shut down yesterday by its web hosting company, Go Daddy (www.godaddy.com), at the request of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office after a former Maryland high school student posted a threat to kill students and staff members.
According to a Washington Post report, weeks after the Maryland attorney general’s office began investigating peoplesdirt.com, which played the role of soapbox for a former Walt Whitman High School student in Bethesda, a Washington DC suburb, who has since been arrested. Before being taken down, the website had more than 54,000 posts from Maryland alone, showing the site’s scale.
Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler told the Washington Post that his office approached advertisers and Go Daddy, raising concerns about the site’s offensive content, which included racially charged rants, slander about the promiscuity of specific girls, and insults about named teachers.
Gansler told the newspaper that while much of the site’s content is protected by the US First Amendment, slander and defamation are crimes. The anonymous nature of the comments, however, makes it difficult for courts to take action.
Gansler’s office sent mailed advertisers appearing on the site, many unaware of the nature of the site, having used an advertising firm to make placements. All the site’s ads were pulled within a four-day period, according to Gansler’s office. Go Daddy, however, did not take down the site when it was first approached by Gansler’s office May 22, but closed down the site Tuesday because of its defamatory content, which violates its service agreement.
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