Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Some very valid points indeed.

> What are the "devastating social consequences" which resulted from that verified claim?

If there's one thing I can confidently back off from is having used the word "devastating". That was, in hindsight, rather hyperbolic.

I think at this point I'm defending the analogy far more than I intended to. I'm not in love with it, I just thought it was being misperceived as an analogy of consequences of the crime itself, when to me it was meant to illustrate a comparison between two crimes which (justly or not) are known for being associated with false accusations / low burden of proof.

> Who else has faced the devastating social consequences of being called a spammer?

If we drop the words "devastating" and "social" from the question (which I realize I introduced), the answer would be "any business who has unfairly been blacklisted by mail providers, blacklisted from Google search results, has had their hosting account suspended, or has been targeted by things like DDoS attacks". These cases do exist, and I've worked at companies affected by this. I do agree now that the consequences (specially at a personal level) are clearly not as serious as being falsely accused of rape.

Thanks for the discussion :)




Consider applying for YC's W25 batch! Applications are open till Nov 12.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: