Defamation

• These questions are being debated in London, Ont., where a man featured on the Facebook group “Are We Dating the Same Guy?
• As scholars who specialize in dating culture and defamation, this case is intriguing to us for the legal precedent it may set.
• It could also have far-reaching implications for people in the online dating world and anyone using social networking platforms.

Are We Dating The Same Guy?

• Since then, groups have sprouted up in hundreds of cities across North America, Europe, the United Kingdom and Australia.
• Men in Toronto have retaliated by also creating their own Facebook page: Are We Dating the Same Girl?
• Members of the women’s groups post information about “red flag” men using screenshots of dating app profiles, text exchanges and sometimes memes.

Online dating groups

• Online posts stating that someone has behaved poorly in the dating context could be considered defamatory.
• Men whose reputations suffer from the information featured in the groups could sue the people posting and the group administrators for defamation, especially if they are of high social or professional standing and have a lot to lose.
• This means that vitriolic statements or gratuitous complaints about someone’s dating behaviour aren’t protected by qualified privilege.

Gender-based violence on campus

• Students who experience distressing dating experiences, including gender-based and sexual violence, may post the names and photos of the perpetrators online to call out violence and protect fellow students.
• However, in doing so they could be vulnerable to defamation suits if they cannot legally prove that the statements are true.
• In 2018, a fired Yukon College instructor also sued a student who accused him of sexual assault and posted about it online.

More safeguards needed

• groups highlight the thorny social and legal implications of posting what could be considered defamatory content.
• The potential for students to be pulled into similarly complex legal battles is equally important to consider.

• Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP has added first-chair trial lawyer Nicholas D. SanFilippo to its Labor & Employment Practice.
• SanFilippo joins the firm's Northern Virginia office from McGuireWoods, where he was a partner in the Labor & Employment department.
• TYSONS, Va., Sept. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP has added first-chair trial lawyer Nicholas D. SanFilippo to its Labor & Employment Practice .
• SanFilippo joins the firm's Northern Virginia office from McGuireWoods, where he was a partner in the Labor & Employment department.

• Rich Men North of Richmond by Oliver Anthony, which appeared on YouTube just a few weeks ago, is the No.
• Sociologically speaking, although its content is essentially libertarian, the song muddies the waters between the American populist left and the right.
• His hit is clearly on the right of the political spectrum and lauded by Republicans.
• As researchers working in the field of political sociology, we are interested in representations of those within nationalist and populist movements.

Two visions of the “people”

• Each sees the political field as divided between the people (seen as organic, authentic and moral) and elites (which are considered disconnected, strategic, inauthentic and above all, immoral).
• In their view it is characterized by its high capital of autochthony, of “local people,” as opposed to immigrants or elites.

Work valued, work despised

• From this perspective, Anthony’s evocation of the situation of miners activates solidarity among the people who do this kind of work.
• In this way, they reconfigure their identity by responding to the contempt in which their occupation is held.
• Finally, assiduous religious practice is often associated with adherence to a populist conception of politics.

A class discourse with a libertarian dimension

• However, what sets Anthony’s song apart from the usual populist right-wing discourse is that it formulates a class opposition based on socioeconomic income.
• This goes further than the vague evocation of an opposition between common people and elites.
• This type of occupational retraining will attenuate the anxiety generated by the “New World” Anthony evokes in his song.

Inflation and ‘peripheral regions’

• Firstly, there’s the widespread perception that the left has abandoned the blue-collar workers to whom Rich Men is de facto addressed.
• Part of this segment of the population feels scorned by “elites” who monopolize symbolic, educational and cultural capital.
• Inhabitants of the rural areas tend not to feel represented by elected representatives and the media.

Polarization benefits populists

• But there are some sociological lessons to be learned about polarization.
• To defuse the polarization that feeds the populist right, its opponents must stop appealing to them as a “basket of deplorables,” to cite Hilary Clinton’s elitist phrase.
• Opponents of the populist right must also stop pathologizing them, as is often the case in psychological approaches to political radicalization.
• Rather than defusing the framing and polarization that benefit populist politicians, these approaches reinforce them.

• CyberGhost VPN is calling for increased awareness and education on revenge porn, in order to help prevent such incidents occurring in the first place and to empower victims to seek support.
• The CyberGhost survey, carried out among a sample of internet users over 18 years old, focused on understanding attitudes towards and actions taken around revenge porn.
• Over 20% of respondents said they knew someone who had been a victim of revenge porn, while over 8% had been a victim themselves.
• Whilst ensuring adequate legal provision for prosecuting these crimes is important, the findings of the CyberGhost VPN survey also demonstrate a critical need for better education and support for victims of revenge porn.