Justin Bieber syphilis: anatomy of an Internet smear campaign

Justin Biber victim of smear campaign

First, singer Justin Bieber does not have syphilis. Bieber is the unfortunate victim of an Internet smear campaign that started with an ugly Facebook page created a month ago, and where the creator wrote they hoped Justin Bieber died of syphilis.

Why? Apparently, the maker of the Facebook page had nothing better to do and believed it was funny. It's not funny at all; to harass Bieber in this way is against the law.   Because Bieber's a public figure, more liberties can be taken than with a normal person; Bieber has to prove intent to commit malice, let alone find the person who did it. That's the price of fame.

Second, the ugly smear engineers apparently used a February TMZ.com blog post with the title "Justin Bieber's Sweet 16 -- Possible Risk of Death" as the basis for "evidence" of the claim. Then the Facebook page surfaced stating the awful wish, and then a Twitter hashtag was created on Sunday that was simply #syphilis, and that became a trending topic on Twitter.

From that, a flurry of blog posts surfaced, some reporting Bieber had it, most others not, and still other bloggers asking if the rumor was true. It's not and it's sick.

Media observers will point to the need for better news verification, but the blogsphere did its job in evaluating and then rejecting the information. Remember, this is a complicated set of developments that has no obvious single person at fault. Assigning blame is hard to do, but Justin's fans are in the process of doing it.

Does Justin Bieber have a defamation of character case?  Yes.  It's obvious the people who did this intended to harm him.  But because the Facebook page does not state Bieber has syphilis, rather says that they wish he got it, the maker of the page can't be successfully prosecuted for defamation.  

In the end, Justin Bieber's best and least expensive course is to let his legion of fans protect him, and let the whole deal blow over.   There are people who aren't happy unless they make someone they perceive as "more important" than they are unhappy.  Why this is, I do not know, but the growth of the Internet has given rise to the work of this kind of sick person.