Legal Question in Discrimination Law in Kentucky

There is a public web-site called topix.com where anyone can get on and submit topics for discussion. I just learned about the site and decided to post a topic of concern and have since found that there are such things as trolls who bounce around and try to stir up problems as much as they can. These trolls can be reported for abuse and the only thing the admin staff does is remove the post if it is deemed abusive which really means it is removed if there are disgusting curse words. There is one person in particular who uses many screen names and even uses other's screen names to try to create hate. While this is very disturbing, I can tolerate comments directed to me but I was checking other topics and the same person does this to everyone. The most disturbing one that has caused me to seek guidance goes like this. A very depressed girl started a topic of such, described her symptoms and was reaching out for help. She was, thankfully, getting a lot of moral support and advice but this same troll just had to post comments that were so ugly and vulgar, I felt sorry for the person asking for help and was hopeful that the vulgar comments did not cause more problems and help to send her into a deeper depression. I have been asking, constantly, for the admin staff at topix.com to do something about the troll and the atrocities that were being posted and they have even chosen to leave many of the vulgar posts on the site. Before any serious emotional damage is done to someone, is there anything I or anyone else can do? Thanks so much ahead of time.


Asked on 1/21/11, 11:59 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Andrea Welker Welker Law Office

Nope. The content belongs to Topix. Unless it qualifies as defamatory or speech that is actually threatening, there's no legal recourse. My suggestion: Don't feed the trolls. Bored ugly people only do that stuff to get a reaction. If everyone ignores it, they'll go away to go make racist comments about the president on Yahoo and YouTube like all the other trolls.

If you're depressed and looking for life direction, I suggest calling a help line or finding a local support group. In real life. Look one up on Topix, then quickly close the browser.

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Answered on 2/08/11, 10:42 pm


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