Comments on: Did Techcrunch Take Down Its Unconfirmed Google Sexual-Assault Story?

By: netgain advisors

netgain advisors — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 22:46:58 +0000

I doubt TechCrunch would be libel for reporting information that is sourced.

By: araneae

araneae — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 15:57:51 +0000

There may have been legal reasons; if the allegations are untrue, they are considered libel, and TechCrunch could be found liable for publishing them.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 14:56:29 +0000

Too bad. So quickly TC has changed. The story was ridiculous, but the two are separate issues.

By: Sue Anne Reed

Sue Anne Reed — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:20:18 +0000

I did find it interesting that TechCrunch unpublished the story … especially knowing how many sites “scrape” the content, so it wasn’t like they were deleting the content completely. As people develop large followings on the Internet, stories like this can spread fairly quickly. One person’s allegation can immediately reach thousands — or millions — of people within a few hours. It’s not like the alleged accuser is famous, other than in the tech universe, but he now has the stink of this type of allegation without much recourse.

By: GabeRivera

GabeRivera — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 22:55:23 +0000

A chronology of which stories preceded which (suggesting causation) should probably note the story originally surfaced on Reddit http://bit.ly/bvb5DB , where it received more comments than on TechCrunch, as well as Hacker News http://bit.ly/avgBe8 . [ Update: the above post was edited after I commented to mention Reddit and Hacker News. ]