The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours

Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by ghaff on Thursday January 07, 2021 @09:20AM (#25671283)

Libel of public figures in the US has an extremely high bar. It needs to be proven that a statement was known to be false or the publication was reckless in deciding to publish the information without investigating whether it was accurate. (Initially established in New York Times v. Sullivan.)

You can of course sue for any reason but winning is another matter.

(It's easier if the defendant is not a public figure, but still, in general, it's relatively hard to win libel suits in the US.)

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Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by rfrey on Thursday January 07, 2021 @09:39AM (#25671497)

"John Doe" above is not a public figure - your parent's point is that social media enjoys all the advantages and power of newspapers without bearing any of the responsibility to strive for truthfulness.

In fact IMO it's even worse - unlike newspapers which would at least be embarrassed by blatant mis-reporting, sensationalist and fantastical stories are a major source of profits for social media, and they've got incentives to encourage and promote them.

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Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by ghaff on Thursday January 07, 2021 @09:48AM (#25671630)

The parent wrote: "John Doe (some public figure)"

Yes, most mainstream publications do strive for truthfulness (fortunately) but it's not really a requirement for 1st amendment protection and I'm sure we can think of fairly mainstream news outlets that don't let the truthfulness responsibility cramp their style too much.

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