An Incomplete Transcription of #Webinair By The #FranklinCenter

Here’s a partial transcript of the webinair put on by the Franklin Center.

Tabitha Hale starts off with introduction. Panelists are Lee Stranahan, Mandy Nagy, Ken from Popehat, attorney and Aaron Walker, attorney. The discussion is about the First Amendment and Brett Kimberlin and his cohorts attempts at shutting down Conservative bloggers.

Lee Stranahan; This is an interesting time we live in. (Talking about technology and it’s impact on news and how it’s presented.)

Interesting new threats to free speech. Past couple of years, new form of cyber terrorism. Used to try and shut down others free speech.

Scare you in first part. Mostly been aimed at Conservatives and Libertarians.

Twitter Mandy Nagy has been subjected to constant intimidation, usually by sock puppets harassing you. If you blog under your real name, sock puppets can use that to gain information against you.

Even people with pseudonyms can be found out. Employers can be contacted, personal information can be disseminated over the internet. A new tactic by these cyber thuigs is the phenomena of SWATting.

They create sock puppet accounts and use them to boycott businesses in an attempt to hurt them because of their political connections.

SWATtings have been attributed to Brett Kimberlin, but there is no substantial proof that he’s actually behind them. Be careful because Kimberlin will use these accusations in frivolous lawsuits.

The internet has been one of the greatest boons to free speech in history, but it has also been a boon to the enemies of free speech.

A brief legal summary from Aaron Walker;

A claim that writing about someone on the internet isn’t a threat against them. Aaron explains the Brandenburg decision from the Supreme Court.

If you write about Brett Kimberlin, chances are good that he or some friends of his will come after you in some fashion or another.

Kimberlin and his associates use a tactic called doxing where they use the court system and put the documents out on the internet. When bloggers write and copy the documents, then Kimberlin will use this as a reason to sue the writer or blogger because personal information is usually included in the docs.

Aaron Walker has been to court four times because of Brett Kimberlin and has another date to look forward to on July 5, 2012.

These people try to overwhelm you with garbage and get you to quit.

Walker talks about the peace order. Kimberlin has a habit of using restraining order against his enemies.

Popehat beat Aaron up for representing himself and rightly so.

Aaron had tweeted that he was working on a blog post. Shortly thereafter, he gets SWATted. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Aaron’s talking about the SWATting which has been documented on several blog sites.

This and other SWATtings are an attempt by whomever to possibly get the intended victim killed.

Lee asks Aaron if it’s worth it. And Aaron says that you have to fight for your rights. He talks about other people in the past who lost their lives over free speech.

Whatever position you take on the issues of the day, you have to be able to talk freely about them.

Mandy Nagy knows more about this deal than most people. Some of the attacks againsty Mandy are all over the web. Threatening statements, saying things against her, her personal life, accusing her of criminal activity. Trying to get in your head.

Tweeting at her employer saying things that weren’t true. emailing her employers using whisper campaigns, ect. Contact your followers behind the scenes. effect your livelyhood. using lawfare. Her and Patterico were the first ones to blog about Kimberlin.

Kimberlin would imply defamatory things about Nagy and Patterico in lawsuits against other parties where they couldn’t defend themselves.

You have to find the right balance between your personal life and your online life. Don’t give out too much information, especially on twitter.

Don’t get in pointless fights on twitter. Be careful who follows her. An hour fighting a troll on twitter is an hour you’re not spending on productive things like blogging.

Cyber bullying is a part of the Progressive tool kit. People come at you in volume to overwhelm your twitter account.

Every blog was one of the greatest things that happened in the struggle against Brett Kimberlin. A lot of people first learned about it through that day.

Nagy alweays open to talk to people on twitter.

People actually looked into the Kimberlin case, researching their articles.

Popehat

He used to be a piano player in a bordello, but really he’s a lawyer who specializes in free speech. More speech guy. Doesn’t believe in lawsuits against speech. Big fan of EBABKD. Fan of using SEO,( Search Engine Optimization), to fight against google bombs.

Enjoys anti-slap motions. Anonymity has been used against Conservative bloggers.

Progressives will screw up the internet. Make it illegal to be anonymous on the internet.

Educate yourself about anti-slap statutes.

Legal mechanism to get rid of frivolous lawsuits before incurring high legal fees.

Popehat gives several examples of organizations that help on anti-slap laws.

Federal anti-slap legislation being held up because of various law lobbying efforts.

Use Streisand effect to fight. Popehat has screen cap of map of states that have anti-slap laws.

Learn how to use screen capture because people will tweet then delete it. Keep records of harassment. Have documentation is important.

Yid with Lid asks if you can remove content from the web. Popehat answers that’s it very hard.

It wraps up. A very good conversation.