Legal Question in Technology Law in Ohio

I am a member of a social networking site.

About a month ago a message thread was opened up and sent to 367 people including myself by an individual. To this day when ever a single person from the group of 367 people reply it sends their reply to everyone the message was originally sent to.

Here's the issue. Some of the conversation that has been taking place has a) been abusive b) harassing c) unethical language wise

Many people have requested and asked the group to stop abusing the thread, delete it and stop replying. However that is not happening. Upon researching and reviewing the site security options and privacy features, I have completed the following:

1) Unfriend each member of the message.

2) Marked the message as spam several times

3) Deleted the message several times

3) Closed my privacy settings to only allow messages from friends (which I am no longer friends with any of them)

4) Blocked individuals replying (still received their messages just with out their name on them)

5) Reported the harassing messengers for unwanted contact

The individual who started the thread stated that they were in contact with a service rep who told them that the only way to get out of the message thread was to delete your account.

I feel this should not be the only answer. I feel that there should some way be a feature to delete the thread entirely or remove your self from the recipients. And I feel this is the responsibility of the said site to provide this. It is my right to use the site, my right to receive notifications to my phone, and my right to receive notifications to my email - just as much as it is there's - WITH OUT harassment.

I need to know if there is anything that can be done in a professional manner legally to address the situation with the messengers (telecommunications harassment (Ohio)?) Or with the networking provider for allowing disruptive, harassing behavior continue after numerous reports have been made.

I honestly have no idea about this topic so I'm just looking for some education on it. I don't feel that I should HAVE to delete my account when being the victim.


Asked on 9/21/10, 12:23 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

Your issue is with the website, not the law. Your relationship with the site is governed by the user agreement. Unless the site is breaching that agreement in a material way, I don't think the law will help you.

I agree that there should be a way for you to opt out of a discussion. But the site does not have to provide a way to do that if it doesn't want to.

Your best option is probably to just ignore the messages.

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Answered on 9/26/10, 1:10 pm


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