Some of our copywriting course and blogging course students write content for websites – and that can include writing responses to user contributions on a message board.

The best advice is to ignore contributions that are foolish or inappropriate, as these generally are not worth responding to. Others should be dealt with quickly, and factually, using the same writing tone as the result of the site.

Copywriters and bloggers may be the first line of defence in spotting legal problems such as libel, naming people who may have legal anonymity and prejudicing court cases.

It is important they know what to do. Our online copywriting course explains the options.

The EU’s Electronic Commerce Regulations says that websites are safe from any legal action arising from user-generated content (UGC) provided they do not moderate the comments. Some people question what this really means in practice.

Web publishers have three options:

  1. No moderation at all, except for removing comments if you receive a complaint. If you use this option, you should not edit posts in any way before publication. This includes correcting spelling mistakes and weeding out inappropriate material.

However, I am sure that many websites pre-edit, the same as many drivers break the speed limit! And they get away with it until they are caught. But, if a reader brings a libel action, the court will forensically examine the website’s procedures, data and records, and will usually be able to work out what has been going on.

  1. Pre-approval of comments before they appear on the website. This means you are legally responsible for UGC.
  2. Reading comments after they have been posted and removing them if you think it is necessary.

The third option is not as simple as it sounds. I was asked recently: ‘Is there anything to stop you from pre-empting a complaint by removing an offensive post before most people may see it? Suppose I had a comments section for my blog or website and someone had posted something that I thought might be considered defamatory/inappropriate about someone. Would I really need to wait until I received a complaint about it or would it be within my rights to remove it before anyone saw it? Would that not be classed as moderation?’

The reality is that many websites use option three. They check posts once they go live and get someone – a friend, for instance – to complain about them straight away. But the complaint has to be sent in writing, logged, responded to and a record kept of the actions taken, and all this takes time in a busy office.

This is why option one is the quickest and safest option. It has its drawbacks, though; message boards can get populated with rubbish. This is why some sites – Sky News, for example – have done away with them. They think they are more trouble than they are worth.

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