Online Civility

One of the issues that members bring to me more and more frequently is concern about online incivility. While there are enforceable terms of service on the AML-hosted elists and forums, the Internet communities run by Local Groups, SIGs, and individual members are not subject to the same oversight.

Any services hosted on AML-owned servers must adhere to the five Minimum Standards for AML Internet Communication Services:

1) Internet Communication Services must comply with all relevant federal laws, plus applicable local and state laws, including regulations regarding copyrights, obscenity, marketing scams, etc.

2) Users may not improperly post or distribute any confidential information or information that would infringe upon the proprietary, privacy, or personal rights of others.

3) Use of the Mensa name and logo must adhere to the current standard for Name and Logo Use.

4) The following disclaimer must be prominent for members agreeing to use these Internet Communication Services. In the case of elists or newsgroups, this disclaimer should be posted at least quarterly:

American Mensa, Ltd. accepts no responsibility for the opinions and information posted via its Internet Communications Services by its members or guests. Additionally, American Mensa is not liable for damages resulting from information transmitted via these Services or from any interruption or failure of these Services.

5) Opinions and information posted via chat, discussion boards or elists remain the property of the poster. Content from national or regional Web sites remains the property of the national organization and content from group Web sites remains the property of the pertinent group, unless otherwise noted.

(ASIE 2005-080)

Other than those standards, each Local Group or SIG using AML services may create its own policies regarding acceptable interactions and consequences. Any elists, Yahoo groups, Facebook groups, blogs, or other social networking tools organized by Groups or individual members are out of AML jurisdiction.

And still, members come to me and demand that "National" step in and deal with obnoxious members on these unofficial venues. While I suspect this is a topic that we all need to mull over as Mensa becomes a conglomeration of all sorts of smaller communities, physical and virtual, currently there is nothing "National" can or should do to intervene when there's a dust-up on a non-AML service.

HOWEVER....the law goes where Mensa does not, and it might behoove members to remember that. For example, I, myself, have a frequent visitor to this blog who attempts to post rude and crude comments. Now, I realize that this fellow, Tom, is merely lashing out at me because he was suspended from the AML forums due to his excessive aggressive behavior and refusal to adhere to the TOS. Regardless, there is no reason why a member should be allowed to stalk and harass a volunteer officer.

Fortunately, it turns out that he lives in Washington state, which has a fairly broad cyberstalking statute. Washington, unlike many states, separates out cyberstalking into its own statutory section. In addition to covering situations of harassment and intimidation, the statute says that, “A person is guilty of cyberstalking if he or she, with intent to…embarrass any other person…makes an electronic communication to such other person or a third party…using any lewd…words, images, or language…anonymously or repeated whether or not conversation occurs.” By including situations of embarrassment and those involving lewd language, even those many anonymously, individuals who bully others online can be punished. (WASH REV. CODE § 9.61.260 (2008).)

So, my point is that while AML may not always be able to step in and "make members behave civilly," there is no reason why any Mensan should have to put up with vicious treatment from other members. If Mensa can't help, then in most states, the police can.