USOP is just the latest company to take a swipe at the bulletin board trolls
Back in August 2010 Nighthawk Energy and Nostra Terra Oil and Gas (NTOG) took legal action against several bulletin board users who were allegedly making defamatory comments against the companies and their directors. As well as contacting the City of London Police, the two companies went to court to force the bulletin boards iii.co.uk and ADVFN, to reveal the reveal the true identities of the anonymous users who were using multiple ID’s as part of their activity.
David Bramhill the ex-MD of Nighthawk said that “The Company took steps to identify the posters who try to escape liability for their defamatory postings by hiding behind a cloak of anonymity, using anonymous email, social networking or bulletin board accounts to disseminate those postings. In some cases the names and other details used to register these accounts are fictitious and posters also can try and cover their tracks using numerous pseudonyms but they can be traced through their IP addresses.” A blog called “Say no to NTOG” was also closed down by Nostra Terra.
Now it’s the turn of US Oil and Gas to take similar action against bulletin board users on LSE, iii and ADVFN after the release of a statement by the company on the 28th November. The release read
“In recent weeks, unlawful statements were posted on internet bulletin boards about US Oil and its directors.
The Company denounces these wrongdoings and today successfully obtained a Court order requiring the operators of the websites concerned to disclose the identities of those users of the bulletin boards who had made the unlawful statements.
The bulletin boards on which the statements were made are as follows: www.iii.co.uk (Interactive Investor), www.lse.co.uk (London South East) and www.boards.ie. No legal complaints were made against the companies who own the relevant websites beyond the order seeking disclosure of the identities of certain users and the Company’s sole objective was to seek this disclosure.”
Since the announcement by USOP, it may be coincidence but many of the most frequented bulletin boards seem to be somewhat quieter of late with many posters apparently out of action or scared off for now… But users can rest assured that the “trolls” will find a way one way or another to ply their trade. Good effort by USOP, but clearing up the bulletin boards is harder than its sounds and for now iii and LSE remain reluctant to apply full oversight of posts. Still food for thought for several posters…
Contrarian Investor UK.
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