Internet abuse and threats

[Butterfly22]

There is a website forum that is no longer maintained by the website owner.

I am a member but had not visited the site since about April 2017, purely because the members and posts are extremely nasty.

I was recently sent a link to a couple of threads there by a friend. A member had taken (without permission) copyrighted photos depicting my husband from his Facebook, announcing that this was the identity of another member. The threads quickly became abusive and threatening, containing lies and insults towards the image and name of my husband and also myself, as being his wife. One of the threats was that, "I'll be keeping my eye out for you the next time I'm around [area near where we live] [husband's name]."

I sent a pm to the admin and also reported the posts through the report to moderator link, although I had been forewarned that they never even visit the forum. I was unable to find contact details of the website owner, as information was redacted for privacy.

Not hearing back from admin or moderator I contacted the website hosts, who replied that they “have made email contact with the account holder in question requesting action to be undertaken against the content in question. We would at least require the images to be removed as they are clearly being used without the permission of the subject of the images.” I replied repeating that the false accusations, threats and stress and anxiety it has caused us contravene their user guidelines. However, they chose to ignore my email and their next reply merely stated that “account holder in question has advised us that the forum threads have been deleted and all those involved will be advised of their behaviour.”

Whilst those threads were indeed deleted, it appears that those involved were NOT advised of their behaviour, nor informed that their assumed identity of a member was incorrect, as they continued with their assumption.

A post appeared mentioning that they see the threads were deleted, and because they were continuing to refer to the accused member as my husband, I posted to inform them they were incorrect in their assumption. This was obviously a mistake, but frankly, we are at our wits end!

So they are continuing to throw lies, abuse and threats towards my husband and, to a lesser degree, myself, stating that they didn’t believe my post and that the accused member is multi-accounting.

This situation is perhaps more complicated as we live outside of the UK, but the website is hosted by a company in the UK.

The whole matter has caused us a great amount of stress that, being disabled, has affected my health to the point that I am currently housebound.

We are now at a loss and do not know what to do! We do not have the money for a lawyer as we are living on my husband’s state pension.

[Amethyst]

Oh goodness. So, just to make sure I'm understanding, this forum has a group of members who have decided for whatever reason that they all hate another member and are going out of their way to attack 'him', but don't know his identity. During this behaviour they have somehow reached the conclusion that you are his wife and that your husband is 'him', and their attacks are now being focussed on your and your husband, wrongly.

If the forum owner and moderators are not taking appropriate action against this group of members then personally I would walk away. It's very easy to get caught up and it take over your life trying to right the wrong and 'clear' your name. Been there. Done that.

Are the posts being made specifically defamatory against you or your husband ? ( you could make a Section 5 complaint under the Defamation Act to the website owner ( via the host if need be ) which will have to go through certain procedures to be passed to the actual poster of the defamation - which results in them either having to give you their personal details so you can sue them directly, or have their posts removed if they refuse to disclose ) (however if you did that you'd have to follow through which isn't an easy task and could simply encourage more attacks against you both )

Do they identify you ( as an individual not as the username you use on the forum ) ?

Is the forum integral to your work / life etc so that you can't just leave ? (I'm guessing not as you'd stayed away for most of last year and seems only went back because someone informed you this was going on - which could simply be a bit of shitstirring knowing you'd go back on and try to argue with them )

Are the attacks only on that specific forum or have they leached over onto your facebook / other forums / social media / email etc ?

Other than the 'keeping an eye out for you' post is there anything threatening you or your husband directly ? Threatening, for example, to inform your employer of wrongdoings, to contact relatives, watching your house, that kind of thing ? ( which would be a police issue )

Also, ensure your username and details here can't be linked back to that forum / you by them should they somehow come across it. I've edited out your location for example.

[Setmefree3]

(I was recently sent a link to a couple of threads there by a friend. A member had taken (without permission) copyrighted photos depicting my husband from his Facebook, announcing that this was the identity of another member. The threads quickly became abusive and threatening, containing lies and insults towards the image and name of my husband and also myself, as being his wife. One of the threats was that, "I'll be keeping my eye out for you the next time I'm around [area near where we live] [husband's name].")

Have you screenprinted the threads?, I could be wrong, but could possibly borderline to a hate crime. Obviously due to the fact that you used to be member and didn’t agree with the way it was run, maybe another member of that forum, who knows your husbands Facebook profile and where you live, for some reason has taken advantage of the fact to cause you upset.

Personally i agree with Amethyst, file under ignore, stay off that website and do screenshot everything for future reference. You could also pop along to your local police and ask them for their input.

I would also say that the person behind it would be known to you personally on the basis that you live outside the UK, and the comments state we know where you live.

[Butterfly22]

Thank you for your replies.

Amethyst - yes, you are correct in your understanding of the situation.

Are the posts being made specifically defamatory against you or your husband ?

That's difficult to say. The posts are against my husband and I, but only in as much as they believe somebody else to be us.

Do they identify you ( as an individual not as the username you use on the forum ) ?

They have identified us with photographs and names from our Facebook accounts, which was the only place the photos they had were published and my username from the post I made (which is the same as this forum!!!).

As far as I am aware, they do not know us personally.

The forum itself is about the part of country we live, but they also appear to know roughly where we live, unless of course that was just a guess. As far as I am aware, they do not know our address at the moment, but with the knowledge of our names and FB account we are not that hard to find.

Some of them reside in the UK, only visiting this part of the country.

I had never made any negative comments on the forum. They are not gunning for us personally, but for the member whose identity they believe is ours, and we are just caught in the crossfire.

The local police would not do anything, nor offer any advice.

The forum concerned is not necessary to us in any way, and we never usually visit it. It is only since the threads were pointed out to us that I have started watching it.

I have copied and pasted the posts into a document.

[Butterfly22]

An update...

Admin is now obviously watching it, hopefully for more than a few days. He closed comments to the thread that was created after he deleted the original threads, with a standard message saying about how the forum is meant to be an enjoyable site for anyone to use (really!). As soon as that one was closed another one opened off slagging off my husband again!

Not sure whether to write to admin again or not, about how it will never stop unless he does something permanent, which he won't

[Amethyst]

Might be worth having a change of name here - just say what you'd like to change to and I can sort it. Save any nastiness following you over.

Presumably this is is a small gang of long term 'core' members so he'll be loathe to ban them. He needs to take control or he'll end up with a site that excludes new members and turns into a bitchy social rather than a useful forum.

Remember that outside the circle of people who are regulars on that forum those posts won't be read - and if you leave they'll have no one to bite back at and soon get bored and move onto someone else - so don't feed them, and just report anything to the admin rather than responding. Best to not log in or if necessary to read the threads, create a new user ID just to read the threads ( if you feel you can't just leave it )

[Butterfly22]

Thanks Amethyst. Could you change my name to butterfly if it's available. Or anything, I don't mind, and email it to me?

[Amethyst]

Done xxx ( you should see what I changed it to next to your previous posts so use that next time you log in )

[Butterfly22]

Thank you.

One thing. I note that the admin, when he closed a post, stated, "Please note - we assume absolutely no liability for the statements of others on these forums, including inaccurate or libelous statements." Would that really exonerate them?

[Amethyst]

We have an acceptable use policy and it's likely they do too, we also publish our procedures for defamation claims .. it's quite standard on forums to protect the forum against claims on what is user generated contact.

eg our acceptable use policy includes ...


MODERATION

User Content is not generally moderated, although we reserve the right to moderate it. We will not be responsible as author, editor or publisher of any User Content and we expressly exclude our liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of our site by any person in contravention of this Acceptable Use Policy. We reserve the right to promptly remove, or to disable access to, any User Content which we deem to be or which is notified to us as being potentially defamatory of any person, unlawful, in violation of any third party rights or in contravention of this Acceptable Use Policy.

[Butterfly22]

Thank you for all your help, it really is appreciated.

Admin is now sort of moderating the forum, but refuses to confirm that the accused member is not who they are saying, and the accusations still continue. The main member concerned is relentless and they will never stop.

[Setmefree3]

Thank you for all your help, it really is appreciated.

Admin is now sort of moderating the forum, but refuses to confirm that the accused member is not who they are saying, and the accusations still continue. The main member concerned is relentless and they will never stop.

I think the easiest for you would be not to login, as most websites have a last seen time for members. If someone knows they are getting to you or your husband, then they will continue to do so. By not logging in, they will see that you ain’t bothered anymore and their thrill, for whatever reason will stop.