I am not a lawyer but have read about defamation law and asked lawyers questions about it. I don’t believe your description of defamation law is as clear cut as you’re making it out to be.
The standard for fault in defamation cases involving private figures is that the defamer had to be “negligent.” That is, they have to have failed to do something they were required to do. Negligence is a vague standard, and it is up to the jury to decide what that means. Framing the point of defamation law as “encourage very high epistemic standards” is just too strong a statement. A jury could interpret it that way, but a jury could interpret it as a much much lower standard.
Furthermore, in my view, basic elements of this post make it a weak case, regardless of whether the claims within it are true of false. Ben is not stating these claims as undisputed, unqualified facts. He is reporting information others have shared with him. It’s only straightforward defamation if he is just making up what people said to him. It’d be more in the defamation camp if Ben himself was saying “Nonlinear mistreated me.”
It seems absolutely inappropriate to me for Nonlinear to threaten to sue in this case. This is a tactic abusers use, and high-integrity people pursue it in much narrower cases.
I am not a lawyer but have read about defamation law and asked lawyers questions about it. I don’t believe your description of defamation law is as clear cut as you’re making it out to be.
The standard for fault in defamation cases involving private figures is that the defamer had to be “negligent.” That is, they have to have failed to do something they were required to do. Negligence is a vague standard, and it is up to the jury to decide what that means. Framing the point of defamation law as “encourage very high epistemic standards” is just too strong a statement. A jury could interpret it that way, but a jury could interpret it as a much much lower standard.
Furthermore, in my view, basic elements of this post make it a weak case, regardless of whether the claims within it are true of false. Ben is not stating these claims as undisputed, unqualified facts. He is reporting information others have shared with him. It’s only straightforward defamation if he is just making up what people said to him. It’d be more in the defamation camp if Ben himself was saying “Nonlinear mistreated me.”
It seems absolutely inappropriate to me for Nonlinear to threaten to sue in this case. This is a tactic abusers use, and high-integrity people pursue it in much narrower cases.