In any specific case, the perpetrators may be … too many in number to sue.
Then choose one, and make an example out of them.
If you admit to yourself that your goal is revenge, having too many potential targets gives you the advantage that you can optimize for impact. You can choose the ones you have the biggest chance to defeat. If you win money, you can spend them all on lawyers to attack more targets. With some targets, you can make a deal that if they publish a sincere apology, you will forgive them half the money they owe you. Then use the apology as evidence against other targets.
If you get the reputation of going nuclear, journalists will think twice when writing about you in the future.
FWIW, I think this wouldn’t work in an individually useful way. Say I get targeted out of the blue because someone edits a picture of my college graduation into a photo of me throwing a baby off of a cliff. I’m not going to be super worried about repeats, I’m just annoyed that this happened for the first time.
My revenge might make people less likely to do this to other people, but I’ve essentially already lost, and would be switching gears from “that guy who got messed up by a viral edited picture” to “that jerk who keeps suing people for years”. I argue that, while I might[1] improve society as a whole by doing this, it won’t noticeably improve my life.
(Once more if I was unclear. In Game Theory terms, a “threat” which increases your score and lowers the score of other agents isn’t really a threat, it’s just something you should do. Instead, it tends to be an action which lowers your score AND the score of other agents, and so is useful as a deterrent. Here, we’re proposing establishing a rule “when you hit me with falsehoods, I hit back with the truth” to discourage people from creating fake news about you. For almost anyone, “hitting back” is going to be costly, so it’s important to remember we’re supporting SOCIETY, not OURSELVES.)
I don’t really care about this claim here, so I literally mean “might”. I’m going after a different part of the idea to which the truth value of this particular segment is irrelevant.
Then choose one, and make an example out of them.
If you admit to yourself that your goal is revenge, having too many potential targets gives you the advantage that you can optimize for impact. You can choose the ones you have the biggest chance to defeat. If you win money, you can spend them all on lawyers to attack more targets. With some targets, you can make a deal that if they publish a sincere apology, you will forgive them half the money they owe you. Then use the apology as evidence against other targets.
If you get the reputation of going nuclear, journalists will think twice when writing about you in the future.
FWIW, I think this wouldn’t work in an individually useful way. Say I get targeted out of the blue because someone edits a picture of my college graduation into a photo of me throwing a baby off of a cliff. I’m not going to be super worried about repeats, I’m just annoyed that this happened for the first time.
My revenge might make people less likely to do this to other people, but I’ve essentially already lost, and would be switching gears from “that guy who got messed up by a viral edited picture” to “that jerk who keeps suing people for years”. I argue that, while I might[1] improve society as a whole by doing this, it won’t noticeably improve my life.
Instead, I think I’d support your claim that your revenge would be a charitable act towards society.
(Once more if I was unclear. In Game Theory terms, a “threat” which increases your score and lowers the score of other agents isn’t really a threat, it’s just something you should do. Instead, it tends to be an action which lowers your score AND the score of other agents, and so is useful as a deterrent. Here, we’re proposing establishing a rule “when you hit me with falsehoods, I hit back with the truth” to discourage people from creating fake news about you. For almost anyone, “hitting back” is going to be costly, so it’s important to remember we’re supporting SOCIETY, not OURSELVES.)
I don’t really care about this claim here, so I literally mean “might”. I’m going after a different part of the idea to which the truth value of this particular segment is irrelevant.