Haaretz The Tel Aviv municipality and a group of social workers are suing media giants Facebook and Google, and two bloggers who persistently criticize the judicial system and welfare authorities, alleging that they are guilty of libel, incitement and invasion of privacy.
In the suit, filed in Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court by the municipality and eight social workers against Facebook, Google, blogging website WordPress and bloggers Lory Shem-Tov and Moti Leybel, the plaintiffs asked the court to order the defendants to “stop the publication of libel, sexual harassment, violations of privacy and more” that target the plaintiffs.
They also want the companies to remove “all the website and/or Facebook profiles that are besmirching the plaintiffs.”
Shem-Tov and Leybel are well known for their online campaigns against social workers and welfare agencies who remove children from homes. In their blogs and on their Facebook pages, they sharply criticize judges and social workers by name, and their posts often use crude language against their targets.
The suit cites instances in which the websites refer to social workers as mentally ill, sluts, “the face of pure evil,” and more.
Every website and/or Facebook profile they operate gets wide exposure on the internet, such that the harm to the social workers grows every day,” the Tel Aviv municipality said in a statement. “Every time one of the employees’ names is typed into Google’s search engine, the surfer is exposed to abominable and hateful words.”
The suit challenges the claim by Shem-Tov and Leybel that they are journalists. “Defendants 7 and 8 [Shem-Tov and Leybel] see themselves as journalists, but their stories use malicious expressions that are sexual, abusive and crudely attack their rivals and the families of their rivals,” the suit states.[...]
Leybel told Haaretz that the suits against him were baseless and false.
"As of late, a number of different people, including lawyers and social workers, have begun undertaking actst of 'cast thy bread upon the waters,' filing baseless and hopeless lawsuits. In these suits, they blame me for advertisements on websites that I have no connection with, and written in a tone that I never thought I would be accused of using," he said.
"For example, there have been recent reports of one such suit for half a million shekel by lawyer Hava Klein against me, she and her lawyer immediately ran to the press to publish reports that she had won half a million shekels from me, but after less than a month the ruling was nullified and of course no one was interested [to report it].
"After reviewing all off the suit's articles, it became clear that once again people are suing me for things published in websites I have no connection with, and, according to the information I have, the suit is rife with lies to the court and in trial they will be proven as such. A libel suit will be filed in response to end this saga," he added.
Why can't we all just get along with each other?
ReplyDelete'Cause then we'll have no blogs, lol...............
ReplyDeleteBtw, did someone famously make that statement? If yes, then who? Have heard it a number of times. .....
Seriously, I think that it's just a despicable move to 1) inhibit free speech, 2) and perhaps, even more so (although I admittedly haven't looked into that scene), to stop the press from halting them to continue perpetrating those acts (if true), which is telling that the plaintiffs either expect or at least see these as likely enough in that particular level in the Israeli government, to grant them that wish to curb such liberties that we see as a given in any democracy...
Rodney king I think.
ReplyDeleteI think we have to attempt to understand the social workers. I don't think that social work in general attracts people intent on doing bad things to families.
ReplyDeleteI think it may attract people who lack a common feeling with others. These people who may lack a certain level of sympathy still may have a strong desire to help others. They are attracted to the idea that will be able to learn from books and professors what they may have failed to pick up on their own through interaction with family, friends, and the usual contact people have on daily life with strangers.
Social workers can come to resemble soldiers and police whose job it is to mostly ignore their feelings and to deal with people according to orders. We want soldiers and police who exhibit some level of sympathy, but not to an extreme.
And in fact, social workers work in a close relationship with law enforcement. If a social worker goes to a judge and makes the case for removing a child from the home, it will be someone like a sheriff's deputy involved in the actual removal. The kid may be crying for his mother, and that deputy has to shut off his feelings and go his job. Same with the social worker. And the same with us....
But that part about "us" only applies when the whole system of social worker, courts, law enforcement, etc. work on the highest levels of integrity and justice, with just the right levels of mercy and kindness and honesty mixed in.
But how many professionals are on that level? Thus, the corruption and evil that the bloggers are apparently focusing on.
Naturally, the social workers don't like it. So they hit back with their usual modus operandi, the legal system.
Then, they should make clear that the authorities must be disqualified as they have a conflict of interest. .
ReplyDelete