A British court of appeal has ruled that Google might bear responsibility for libellous posts on its Blogger platform if it has been alerted to the material and done nothing about it. The Guardian reports court found that the five-week gap between the notification and response was insufficient and might leave it open to libel action. The decision, still open to appeal, might help frame the liability of platforms about defamatory material in the digital age.
Brian Morrissey, writing for Digiday, says journalists need to understand how advertising works. Models of advertising are changing in the digital sphere and journalists need to recognize the relationship between editorial and advertising content, particularly the emergence of sponsored content. "Separation of church and state is a lovely concept, and it still makes sense in many instances. But the idea that journalists can remain aloof from their real industry — and that’s advertising, for the most part — is a fallacy," he writes.
The Knight Foundation is expressing regret about the $20,000 speaking fee for Jonah Lehrer earlier this week, Poynter's Julie Moos reports. And Forbes.com's Jeff Bercovici encouraged Lehrer, whose work was discredited in a plagiarism case last year, to return the funds or donate them to a scholarship --- to no avail.