2. Describing something as a rumour, or putting it in the form of a question, doesn't make it OK to disseminate information you can't verify. The writer didn't treat it as an unconfirmed rumour, because if it had been treated that way, it would never have been posted”

Agree wholeheartedly, saying

“It has been rumoured that X is a paedophile but we don't know whether this is true” = defamation

Being online doesn't obviate your responsibility to check your sources before you publish something which results in injury to someone else's interests. Lives and companies have been ruined over.

There are plenty of reasons to be more careful over things which are published over the internet. There are many people with less than pure motives pushing their own agendas. The internet is becoming polluted by cybervandals of all kinds actuated by different motives.

The impact of these untruths should always be the utmost consideration.

Web 2.0 is fantastic, but clearly it has an ugly side.  The same blogs and social sites that give life to the constructive conversations that serve as the ingredients to what we value from Web 2.0, also give life to those who use blogs as vehicles to…