By Stephen McKinley
An Irish-American online message board returned to the Internet last Thursday after it had closed down following claims that several of the website’s users had received death threats.
The site, Ireland Uncensored (www.westwindnet.com/ireland/debatcen), was founded “to provide an open forum for the discussion of political issues in Northern Ireland.” According to the homepage, the site “is part of a graduate study on the conflict in Northern Ireland.”
The incident follows the shutting down of the website of Radio Free Eireann (www.iraradio.com) after allegations that that New York-based radio show defended terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York City and Virginia.
Lawsuits were filed against Ireland Uncensored after increasingly acrimonious debates in the message boards turned to insults, personal attacks and death threats.
According to Mark E. Mendel, an El Paso, Texas-based attorney for several unnamed plaintiffs living in Northern Ireland, “people were posting people’s personal details, obscene remarks and out-and-out death threats against people who live in the Six Counties, including posting the addresses of these people.”
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“That message board is watched by members of the loyalist community in the Six Counties,” he added.
But Mendel admitted that he has not yet moved to sue anyone, because of reforms agreed by the persons who operate the message board, which is based in Colorado.
One of the operators, Julie Brown, said that she had been on vacation when letters from attorneys arrived at her home, so that she took Ireland Uncensored offline until she had access to the letters and to her lawyers, Smith, Dornan and Shea, with offices in Manhattan and Long Island.
Brown said that while she acknowledged that there had been problems with abusive individuals on Ireland Uncensored, she had planned the reforms as part of an overhaul of the site.
“The changes were planned in advance. The shutdown allowed us some time to make the changes,” Brown said in an email from Colorado.
“What we are attempting to do is to cut down on some of the alleged abuse while keeping the basic nature of the board — free, uncensored discussion. While folks now have to register and have a password, they can say what they want. Each one has formally agreed that they are solely responsible for what they say,” Brown said.
“We have had problems with a few individuals threatening to sue us and threatening to turn myself and others into the FBI.”
Brown’s attorney, Russell Smith, said that he had been retained to help the message board get back online.
“It was a messy situation,” Smith said. “It had become anarchy. They had wanted unfettered freedom and that would have been great if people had evolved to the point where using the terms ‘whores’ and ‘rapists’ and death threats wasn’t the end point of debate.
“There were a lot of people who were wannabes, not involved in what was happening in Northern Ireland, but felt they had something to offer. Many posts may have happened when people got back from a bar and just wanted to vent.”
On another message board, www.irlnet.com, Mark E. Mendel posted a message defending the actions of the clients he represented:
“We wish to make clear that our action was directed not toward stifling free and vigorous speech, nor in any way to accomplish some petty personal agenda. I think that most of you who may have familiarity with Debate Central over the years would agree that whilst there was much interesting and thought-provoking debate there, in recent times it had become a free-for-all where insults, threats, racism, misogyny and worse were the order of the day.”