Defamation of Celebrities (Final Paper)

Final Paper

In the digital age we live in, the first places to inform us about breaking news or important events are social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook. These platforms help in democratizing societies since they support free speech and self-expression. In some cases, though, this self-expression takes a different turn and violates other people’s rights to become breaking news. In most of these cases, it happens with the defamation of Hollywood figures due to malice from certain individuals. This serves as an ethical issue since it is easier to spread slander about stars without proof; yet it is harder to prove this libel as false accusations. So the question is: Is it ethical to publicize accusations on social media or mainstream publications prior to investigating against the accused?

To start with, defamation can either be written (libel) or spoken (slander), and the people who could be defamed are individuals, corporations and even nonprofit organizations (Packard, 2013). According to Emily Doskow’s article “Defamation Law Made Simple”, the law of defamation “tries to balance competing interests: On the one hand, people should not ruin others’ lives by telling lies about them; but on the other hand, people should be able to speak freely without fear of litigation over every insult, disagreement, or mistake.” This means that there is a struggle between maintaining one’s own right for free speech and violating other’s rights for the sake of malice. In terms of libel laws, the general law allows the “claim of damages without proof of actual harm” (Libel, 2007). Damaging people’s reputations is becoming much easier nowadays with the ease of accessibility of social media platforms which encourage free speech. However, investigations must be conducted in order to prove the claim right; and this is something not many people know, but even a simple tweet which defames a famous figure might lead to court issues if it isn’t backed up with proof. “46% of 18- to 24-year-olds are unaware they can be sued for defamation if they tweet an unsubstantiated rumor about someone, according to research for law firm Wiggin” (Wheeler, 2013). When it comes to the cases of spreading libel about Hollywood stars, the law of defamation is not in favor of the accused since it is usually violated. This violation happens when a rumor spreads online and the fingers are pointed prior to investigations about these cases.

It’s no surprise to hear that accusations of sexual harassments in Hollywood are still surfacing, and now more than ever. After the Harvey Weinstein accusations of harassment and rape of several Hollywood female figures, many others were encouraged to out more stars and famous figures such as Ed Westwick, Kevin Spacey and Ben Affleck (Cooney, 2017). In Ben Affleck’s case, he tweeted that he had acted inappropriately towards another actress on TRL, where he groped her on screen.

(Here’s the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=23&v=rzcanJigO6U)

But on an even more serious note, Kevin Spacey has been accused of harassment in almost every aspect of his career. According to Kendall Fisher in her Enews article on November 22, the first accusation of Spacey’s sexual harassment was by Anthony Rapp who stated that Spacey invited him over and ended up “crawling on top of him and making a sexual advancement.” And then the accusations went on and on from many different sources, and Spacey admitted to all of them and then decided to seek treatment and evaluation for his actions. However, this isn’t the only outcome of his actions. These accusations have had many impacts on the men’s careers. “As men like Mr. Spacey, Harvey Weinstein and Louis C.K. have been accused of vile behavior, entertainment companies have mostly responded by shelving or delaying movies and TV shows associated with them” (Barnes, 2017). With Spacey, “Netflix halted production on “House of Cards” and abandoned “Gore,” a completed film starring Mr. Spacey as Gore Vidal” (Barnes, 2017). So Netflix has officially cut its ties with Spacey.

On another note, there’s the case of Brett Ranter who was accused by six women that he had harassed them; however, Ranter denied these accusations and even ended up filing a libel lawsuit against a woman accusing him of rape, yet, he still managed to lose his ties with Warner Bros, and even stated that he will be staying away from this company until all accusations are proven wrong (Scott, 2017).

This brings me to my next point: the cases in which accusations are faulty, and how difficult it is to prove this libel wrong. Even though the internet is there to inform us about the world, it might sometimes misinform about certain things. Many Hollywood stars have been accused of sexual harassment, yet not all of these accusations are researched and proven right before the word spreads. The issue is not only that; it’s the fact that these accusations lead to the stars getting banned from films, series or any contracts for future works. The fact is that we tend to publicize these accusations prior to actual proof and, in certain cases, the people accused might already receive their punishments regardless of whether the allegations were right or wrong. Hence, the logical thing to do is to wait upon an answer before taking any action or spreading the word. “Allegations of sexual harassment (or, indeed, of other types of harassment, such as racial harassment, bullying, homophobia, or psychological harassment) will — following a fact-finding investigation — either have merit or not. Merit is determined through a proper investigation: a fact-finding process aimed at clarifying and assessing the issues raised by the allegations,” (Burr, 2011). This means that the value of these accusations comes with the investigation and not just the allegation. That being said, “outing” a person for his/her guilt should not be the main reason behind an allegation. In addition, it is extremely difficult for them to prove themselves innocent. In fact, they have to undergo a process where they have to prove all the elements of defamation and that the accusations were made with malicious intentions (Doskow). Yet, even though the statistics on false allegations are extremely low (Lazard, 2017), it still is logical to wait upon research and investigations in order to take action.

That being said, it’s a pity that some celebrities have been banned from shows and films due to allegations that are still to be investigated. For example, there’s Danny Masterson’s case, where he was accused of harassment and then directly got written out of the Netflix show “The Ranch”. He had an interview with Teen Vogue magazine where he said something interesting, “I have never been charged with a crime, let alone convicted of one. In this country, you are presumed innocent until proven guilty. However, in the current climate, it seems as if you are presumed guilty the moment you are accused” (Ceron & Elizabeth, 2017). This is true, since in most cases people do step forward assume certain individuals as guilty before any investigations take place. Another example is that of David Guillod, who stated that the sexual harrasments pointed towards him were false accusations, and that he was saddened by the fact that these accusations were done by someone he considers a close friend of his (Ceron & Elizabeth, 2017). Also, singer Melanie Martinez was accused of sexually harassing her ex best friend singer Timothy Heller. Timothy tweeted and pointed fingers at Melanie who denied the accusation.

Melanie then had two responses, both denying this allegation and telling her fans that she’s aware of how sensitive this topic is. (Ceron & Elizabeth, 2017).

All these accusations are examples of cases that need to be investigated before being published. The ethical part would be to be a hundred percent sure of these accusations before taking action regarding the matter. Besides, even if the accused is proven to be innocent, it would still be difficult to get rid of the reputation that sticks, whether innocent or guilty. The idea that a person is accused of sexual harassment is too serious of a problem to let go of. However, the conducted examinations should be processed quickly so that actions would be taken immediately. In addition, violation of others’ rights to privacy shouldn’t be as simple as a click of a button. No matter what they did and who they are, if these accusations were to be stated in public or on any accessible platform, the least they should be is reliable.

We tend to make facts out of everything we see on social media, and the ease of creating these “facts” is at the grip of any user’s hands. Yet, one must be aware and smart enough about what to post and when to post it. But if we fail to do so, this is where algorithms can step in and try to filter out what is factual regarding another individual (specifically celebrities and Hollywood stars) in a sense where once the statements regarding the person are proved to be right, the users will be able to tweet and post about the subject freely, without defying the ethics of defamation.

References:

Barnes, B. (2017, December 13). The Race to Erase Kevin Spacey. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/13/movies/kevin-spacey-all-the-money-in-the-world-christopher-plummer.html

Burr, C. (2011, November). False Allegations of Sexual Harassment: Misunderstandings and Realities. Retrieved from https://academicmatters.ca/2011/10/false-allegations-of-sexual-harassment-misunderstandings-and-realities/

Ceron, E & Elizabeth, D.,. (2017, December 12). A List of Powerful People in Entertainment Who Have Been Accused of Sexual Harassment or Assault This Year. Retrieved from https://www.teenvogue.com/story/sexual-harassment-assault-allegations-hollywood-music-entertainment

Cooney, S. (2017, December 12) Here Are All the Public Figures Who’ve Been Accused of Sexual Misconduct After Harvey Weinstein. Retrieved from http://time.com/5015204/harvey-weinstein-scandal/

Doskow, A. E. (n.d.). Defamation Law Made Simple. Retrieved from https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/defamation-law-made-simple-29718.html

Fisher, K. (2017, November 22). Everything We Know About Kevin Spacey’s Sexual Harassment Allegations. Retrieved from http://www.eonline.com/news/894375/everything-we-know-about-kevin-spacey-s-sexual-harassment-allegations-and-the-repercussions-that-followed

Lazard, L. (2017, November 27). Here’s the truth about false accusations of sexual violence. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/false-sexual-violence-assault-rape-allegations-truth-rare-international-day-for-the-elimination-of-a8077876.html

Libel. (2007, August 06). Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/libel

Packad, A. (2013). Digital Media Law. Second edition.

Scott, M. (2017, December 12). The Weinstein effect: The growing list of celebrities, politicians accused of sexual harassment. Retrieved from http://www.nola.com/movies/index.ssf/2017/11/the_weinstein_effect_a_rundown.html

Wheeler, B. (2013). Limits of Freedom of expression on FB and Social Networking Sites

BBC Legal Guide to Twitter. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20782257