Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Comment: Murderer Requests Wikipedia Anonymity

Following up on the news that a convicted murderer wants Wikipedia to remove references to his crime. There's a controversy over what laws the various different versions of Wikipedia fall under - a German privacy law coming into tension US right to free, truthful speech. I'm not interested in this legal question so much as I am the more general question of what rights of privacy anyone ought to be entitled to from Wikipedia.

Some have pointed out that the identity of the actor's killer is a matter of public record, and so some might want to claim that placing this information on Wikipedia makes no difference to the individual's privacy. I find that unconvincing - clearly wikipedia has more prominence than a court record. Where the issue is the criminal's ability to get on with day to day life I'm sure the appearance of the information on Wikipedia makes a material difference.

Surely some information which is interesting and publicly verifiable ought not to appear on Wikipedia because of its intrusiveness. For example, I imagine the past romantic relationships of public figures could be established on at least some occasions, but unless it reveals something of legitimate interest to the public (such as a politician caught in a possible conflict of interest) such material should not be published. Likewise public figures' children, except where they are notable in their own right (as a child actor, say), should basically be left alone. (I assume this is the present policy - Obama's children do not have pages, despite the vast amount of press coverage of their first day of school, their new puppy etc.)

So where does this murderer fit in? As far as I have seen, nobody has argued for any legitimate public interest in the killer's identity - nothing hangs on who did it, it isn't necessary to any understanding of why the actor died, say. As such, I can't see any need for the information to appear in the article.

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