False Advertising

What might you have done differently if you were in the position of artist Ken Zeran, mentioned in this chapter?


The story of Ken Zeran is told in chapter seven of Blown to Bits. Zeran was an artist and filmmaker who relied on his phone for his livelihood. In 1995, someone posted advertisements on an AOL bulletin board for inappropriate, offensive shirts relating to a bombing in Oklahoma City. The ad gave Zeran's phone number as the contact information even though Zeran had nothing to do with the advertisement (Abelson, 244). Ken started getting angry calls and even death threats about the shirt advertisements from Yahoo. Ken's response was to call AOL and ask them to remove the user. They did once, but whoever was responsible just made another name and posted the same false information. AOL promised to remove and prevent further postings, but did not follow through. Ken eventually got police surveillance around his home for protection. He also called one radio station that was promoting calling Ken and basically telling him off. The radio station learned of the situation and issued a retraction. Ken tried to sue AOL for defamation of character but to no avail, since AOL could not (due to precedent) be held to the same standard as a publisher. 


I probably would have tried to contact "higher ups" in the AOL company to get the content removed. I definitely would have called the police right away if people were making death threats against me. I also would have changed my phone number. It would be a different situation now than in 1995 because of the expansion of the web. Ken didn't have the same accessible tools that he anyone would now. I could switch to a business plan that focused on online and/or in person business interactions instead of on the phone. I could change my number and send messages/emails out to clients and friends that I trusted were not the culprit. It still would be a setback to change business styles abruptly, but I think with increased technology and others using technology I would be able to keep clients even if I stopped my phone service until the false advertisements stopped.