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Comcast bidding for E channel 03/15/2006 Cybersmears -- they're a part of the Internet we'd rather not think about, the nasty, poisonous side that can inflict irreparable damage to people's lives and leave victims with little or no recourse. And they frequently happen not in some secluded corner of the Web, but in the sprawling electronic plazas of high-profile sites like Yahoo and Craigslist. For Gene (whose last name is being withheld because he fears for his safety), the reality of cybersmears was brought home this month after the cops disrupted a gathering of public-sex enthusiasts at San Francisco State University. Shortly afterward, Gene, 35, who works in the office of a senior UCSF official, received an e-mail to his AOL account. The sender charged Gene with having tipped off the police about the San Francisco State "sex party" and said he'd be posting pictures of Gene at a Yahoo forum for gay men who arrange sexual encounters at public places. Addressing other members of the Yahoo forum, the sender wrote that Gene "is causing trouble for the rest of us and is ruining our fun." He referred to Gene by an incorrect name but accurately described his appearance and place of employment. "I immediately wrote back and asked what was going on," Gene recalled in an interview this week. "I told him I didn't know what he was talking about and said I thought he had the wrong guy." The stranger, whose e-mails identify him only as "Reality Check," responded by saying he was blocking Gene from any further e-mail correspondence. "I'm going to keep posting those pictures and there's nothing you can do about it so f -- off!" Worried, Gene registered for the Yahoo forum and took a look at what was there. "Sure enough," he said, "there they were, pictures of me and some lines about how I was responsible for reporting their thing to the police." Experts say cybersmear campaigns up the ante from other forms of online attack, such as "flaming" people by e-mail or publishing personal rants on a Web site. A cybersmear campaign is intended to do lasting harm to an individual's or organization's reputation, littering the Net with inaccurate or malicious material that others can link to. "The ability to trash people in the mass media used to be reserved only for those who own a printing press," said Ray Everett-Church, a Silicon Valley privacy consultant. People who post to most electronic gathering spots typically can write whatever they please with full anonymity. It's up to those who run each online community to decide what, if anything, should be deleted. Chris Hoofnagle, who runs the San Francisco office of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said it's frequently difficult for people victimized by malicious or defamatory postings to seek remedies. "You're on the border between free speech and individual rights in many of these cases," he observed. "And most avenues open to you, such as the courts, are skewed toward free speech." Even if a victim does pursue legal action, this can be a time-consuming and costly process. Gene didn't know it at the time, but his problems began with a March 14 posting on Craigslist. It contained details of a sexual encounter scheduled for that night in the fourth-floor restroom of the Humanities Building at San Francisco State. "Condoms will be provided for those that play safe," the posting advised. Ellen Griffin, a San Francisco State spokeswoman, said a campus police officer spotted the posting that morning during a routine check of online mentions of the university. The officer placed a warning in the restroom that it was being watched for any suspicious activity. Griffin said uniformed officers also made frequent checks on the Humanities Building that night, which she said may have deterred participants in the "restroom party" from convening. Two days later, on March 16, Reality Check accused Gene by e-mail of having "ratted us out to campus police." Gene, a San Francisco resident and a gay man, said he doesn't know who the members of this Yahoo group are or how Reality Check got his e-mail address. But he recognized the two pictures Reality Check had posted as photos he had mailed to a variety of online correspondents before entering into a relationship with his partner of three years. He said he tried to contact someone at Yahoo to lodge a complaint but couldn't connect by phone with an appropriate person. Gene then repeatedly e-mailed the Sunnyvale company but got nothing more than automated responses. He said Yahoo didn't take action until he hired an attorney last week to write a letter to the company. Within days, Gene said, Reality Check's Yahoo forum was shut down. A Yahoo official acknowledged knowing of Gene's situation but declined to comment on the case or to discuss the company's policy regarding malicious postings. Meanwhile, the first of about a half-dozen postings began showing up on Craigslist. The postings, most with Gene's picture attached, appeared on the site's San Francisco listings for "men seeking men." The first, on March 18, was headed "I know who you are" and used the same incorrect name Gene had been called in the earlier e-mail. "I have your pics and I'm going to post them on a bunch of free gay websites tonight," it warned. It was immediately followed by another posting, with Gene's picture attached, advising people that "this meth addict walked off with my wallet after I went to the restroom after our hook-up ... Another posting two days later, also with Gene's picture, read: "Had sex with this guy, then when I came back from the restroom my wallet (and he) were gone. In each instance, Gene said, Craigslist workers at the company's San Francisco headquarters removed the offending posts within a few minutes of being notified by e-mail or phone. But he said they wouldn't divulge the identity or any other details of who had posted the messages. "They said they couldn't release any information without a subpoena," Gene recalled. Craigslist's privacy policy specifies that the company may disclose information about users "to law enforcement officers or others" if this will "protect the rights, property or personal safety of Craigslist, its users or the general public." Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist's chief executive, said by e-mail that "in practice, we take a conservative approach with respect to disclosing such information." He said the company typically requires a subpoena or search warrant before releasing data about users. Buckmaster said incidents of cybersmears "are exceedingly uncommon as a percentage of total postings, but as our monthly posting volume continues to rise, we unfortunately do see harassment cases such as this from time to time." He said Craigslist takes no responsibility for screening its postings, relying instead on "a flagging system for users to act upon bad listings." "All forms of harassment are strictly prohibited on Craigslist," Buckmaster said.
Gene filed a complaint this week with the San Francisco Police Department. But he said the officer he spoke with admitted the case wouldn't be treated as a priority "because there's no serious injury or death threat involved." Gene said he received a sympathetic ear from the San Francisco district attorney's office but was told that nothing could be done until a police investigation is completed. As for a lawsuit to obtain the subpoenas required to get full disclosure from Yahoo and Craigslist, he said he is reluctant to spend thousands of dollars on attorney's fees. And so here he is, bumped and bruised from his cybersmearing, and above all else, frustrated that Reality Check will probably get away with what he's done. "Anybody can do anything they want to you on the Internet, and you can't do anything about it. David Lazarus' column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
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