Forum owners - and contributors - are publishers, but few have any legal training in publishing.
Concepts such as fair dealing and the right of reply are not widely understood.
Also, there is no doubt that criticising goods and services has become more dangerous in recent years - some of the previously gung-ho national newspapers are more cautious than they were.
Ultimately, the forum owner is responsible for any bother stemming from content because the author, if they can be traced, may not have any money and will certainly be most unwilling to part with what they do have.
I can understand why an owner would not want to take a risk, however small.
Well said. As I mentioned previously, the law is frequently misunderstood when it comes to libel via the internet, or the more extreme criminal charges associated with incitement etc.
For a start, a published statement can only be libellous if it can be proved to be false. In this case the statement criticising a company was perfectly legal, as it was true.
The test for publishing something that is offensive is a pretty tough one. I doubt that a court would find publishing swear words offensive, for example, and personally I don't think I've ever seen things stoop that low here. It isn't offensive in law just to call someone a derogatory name, unless that name-calling can be proved to have caused actual (not imaginary) material damage. Even then it's extremely unlikely to result in a prosecution.
Similarly, publishing information freely obtained or received isn't normally unlawful, unless it is covered by a specific agreement preventing such publication. Even then it is not easy to bring a prosecution (look at Wikileaks, the Spycatcher story etc, etc). Just because publishing something annoys someone doesn't make it unlawful. If it did, then Private Eye and most of the tabloid press would have been suppressed years ago.
The core value of this forum to members has to be the free and open exchange of information about available electric bikes. If that exchange of information is no longer free and open, but is edited or censored and therefore biased, either deliberately or accidentally, then the value decreases, both for forum members and for advertisers and sponsors.
Finally, although the host of a forum has a legal obligation to try and ensure that published content remains within the bounds of the law (tough here when the whole forum is based on a presently illegal activity) then they cannot be prosecuted for the content posted by members. We all carry the responsibility for the content of our posts as authors.
