Someone changing your words on the web?

[Whodunnit]

I understand the craziness of the internet and its not really a big deal. But I had a moderator of a forum change a post of mine to say something different than what I said.

I understand the administrator of a website has the right to moderate a forum. And I would have no problem with something I authored being deleted entirely. However I think tampering with someones content by changing its meaning and tampering with someones profile is a whole other issue entirely.

I have found that what you author in a forum falls under the legal issues of "blogging". I've also seen in the news lately that people will not be hired for content posted on their myspace/etc and there was even a case where a criminal got off charges for what the arresting officer had posted on his myspace the day he arrested the man.

Now what if a forum account I'm connected with gets changed by a moderator to say I do something illegal? And affects me in such a way?

What kind of rights do I have? I'm not looking to sue, I'm looking for legal action to threaten with so that my content is either deleted entirely or left un-manipulated by a tampering moderator.

Contacting the board administrator has achieved nothing at this point, I'm going to have to have something to threaten with in order for anything to change.

 

[The Occultist]

So, has a mod actually edited a post of yours to make it seem like you did something illegal?

 

[Whodunnit]

Not so far. The mod is trying to start trouble by changing what I have said in some threads and even changed a part of my profile. The mod certainly has the power though because it doesn't show up as a mod edit unless they want to it. And when he edits it he doesn't make it show up as something a mod did. It looks like I typed it.

 

[The Occultist]

Is there somebody above the mod you can go to to complain?

At this point, no illegal activity has occurred. If you can find no solution, then the only real advice I can offer is for you to delete your account and stop using that message board.

Quincy should be along shortly to offer some more insight as he is far more knowledgeable here than I am.

 

[quincy]

Actually, The Occulist, your advice to Whodunnit is about as good as it gets.

At this point, Whodunnit, you have little else you can do.

If the moderator were to change your posts to the extent that your online "personality" changed in a significant way, and that change led to a personal injury of some sort (defamed your real person, put your real person in a false light, became a form of identity theft through impersonation, became harassment), then there could be legal action available for you to take.

Online "impersonation" actions are not the easiest to pursue, and the proofs you would need for a situation such as the one you describe would be difficult at best (ie. first proving the moderator was the one who wrote the posts in your name, obtaining a court order to have the moderator's real identity revealed for a court action, etc). And, if you created an online identity that was "anonymous," you would further have to prove that you were identifiable to others and were, in real life, connected to your anonymous user id.

Certainly The Occulist's advice is the easiest way to avoid any of the potential problems you could face with a moderator-gone-wild.

 

[Whodunnit]

Gotcha. Thanks guys.