Internet Defamation: It Could Happen to You! Why this website? The inspiration for the website www. ItCouldHappenToYou.org came from the brave struggle of Mr. Altaf Nazerali against Internet defamation. He was victimized in a series of articles by an unscrupulous writer on an Internet website. Mr. Nazerali stood up to this type of online bullying and in doing so he inspired all of us to stand up against defamation on the World Wide Web. The key realization is that this situation can happen to anyone. Any of us can become the target of defamation online. This is an issue that deserves the attention of the public.
The Story of Altaf Nazerali  Mr. Nazerali is a respected businessman who is based in Vancouver and works internationally. He came from a family of modest means. His parents immigrated to Canada as refugees from Africa in the 1970s. When he was just 15 years old, he attended Columbia University. Mr Nazerali graduated at 20 with a BA and MBA from Columbia working his way through university. Mr. Nazerali has been in the venture capital business for almost 30 years. He has financed numerous companies in the technology, telecommunications, Internet and natural resources sectors, and created jobs for hundreds.
In August of 2011 Mr. Nazerali became aware that some false articles against him were being circulated around the web. They had been published sometime before but Mr. Nazerali only learned about them when a business contact told him that he had done a Google search and had noticed some damaging statements about Mr. Nazerali on a website.
Mr. Nazerali was shocked by the lies written about him, putting him in places he had never been, with various criminals and international terrorists with whom he was supposedly associated. The author of the articles, Mark Mitchell is a writer with purported journalistic credentials, and his financial backer is Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com, a public company, and stock conspiracy theorist. Mr. Nazerali emailed and called Mark Mitchell in September 2011 to advise him of the various falsehoods in the articles, and expressing surprise that someone with his journalistic credentials would write without seeking to confirm the facts prior to publication.
Mr. Nazerali offered to answer any question and advised Mitchell that he had either been misinformed, or was deliberately damaging Mr. Nazerali’s reputation. Among other things, the sloppy journalism of the writer had resulted in a case of mistaken identity, confusing Mr. Nazerali with another person bearing a similar name.
Although the writer initially offered to make changes to the articles, he eventually sent Mr. Nazerali an email response saying that he would remove any mention of his name if he would agree to become a “source” for the writer.
In this situation Mr. Nazerali had very few options. He was stuck with lies being spread around the Internet accusing him of being an arms and drug dealer, and being involved with various criminal and terrorist organizations. His sole recourse was to go to court and seek justice. Unfortunately the legal process is lengthy, expensive and time consuming. Following the injunction granted to Mr. Nazerali by the Canadian court in October 2011, the defendants claimed that Canada did not have jurisdiction in this matter, and a hearing was held in January 2012 to determine whether British Columbia was the appropriate jurisdiction to try this case of defamation. The Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled in February that British Columbia did indeed have jurisdiction in the matter, and dismissed the defendants’ motion (see Court Rulings). Three Canadian judges have now read the materials during hearings at the Supreme Court of British Columbia in October and December 2011, and in January 2012 and have ruled that these articles are defamatory. Mr. Nazerali hopes to prevail in the legal system, and just as importantly, in the court of public opinion – because what happened to him could happen to anybody.
The Message The case of Mr. Nazerali shows that this kind of problem can happen to anyone. No matter how hard you try to live a peaceful, productive and generous life, there are some bad apples out there who seek to gain notoriety by making false and sensational allegations against others to promote their own agenda, as twisted as it may be. It’s hard to understand this until it happens to you. Mr. Nazerali’s experience shows that any person anywhere can become the target of untrue and malicious articles posted on the Internet. How many of us have the time and ability to go beyond Google searches, and actually discern what is true and what is not? How many of us believe what we read on the Internet, and simply accept this as being true? We should all raise awareness about this problem that could happen to any of us!
http://www.itcouldhappentoyou.org/ |
