Should influencers be allowed to sue to block public records requests?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm assuming the judges are deciding these cases on an individual level according to the facts. So, I'll trust them to make the decisions.

I would like the judge to say to her, “oh, so you think there is too much public interest in the death of your child? Maybe you should have thought about that before selling your family for profit.”

Does the public really need to see video footage of the child drowning??? No, they don't.

She is trying to block the death certificate, the 911 call, and the police report. All things that are routinely released in court proceedings, etc. At any point in her life prior to this happening, she would have viewed this much interest in her as a reflection of her awesomeness and her being a “girl boss.”

If my child died, the public would not care because I don’t put my life out there on sale for the world. She does.

But yes, you are right I absolutely loathe influencers and struggle to find any empathy when things go poorly for them. My first thought was that she was probably filming/editing/prepping while her unattended three year old wandered outside.

She was being stalked in very disturbing ways after this happened. I don't blame her for trying to keep it all private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently, before the child drowned, there were lots of comments on her posts telling her to fence her pool and she DELETED them. So the idea that she can just delete “bad” content like the 911 call or body cam footage is par for the course.

She also has videos showing that her young child knew how to open the door leading to the pool, by himself.

I have nothing against this influencer and I am sad for her. But in general, the public’s inappropriate and unhealthy interest in this child’s death is a direct result of the “content” she put out there. Influencers are harmful to society IMHO.


And most of all, influencers are harmful to themselves. She will no doubt film some long series talking about what happened, her grief, etc. And it will be monetized and those videos will make a bunch of money. Will she set up a foundation in honor of her child? Will she become a crusader of water safety? Or will she simply buy a bigger house and a nicer car? My money is on the latter.

I agree once the dust settles she will monetize it for sure.

Are you familiar with this particular woman or are you just guessing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the hate towards mom influencers is way out of proportion.

Look, we’ve set up a society where moms are expected to stay home and parent 24/7, yes also expected to contribute 50% of the finances. Most men cannot afford to provide for a family on their salary alone. Some moms found a way to both stay home and make money. Good for them. I’m not going to fault them for finding a solution in a nearly impossible set of circumstances.

People also think the life of an influencer is easy. Take some pictures, post videos. It’s not. It is a grind. Landing one brand deal takes weeks if not months.

Because they're so FAKE. That's why they get all the hate that they do. I truly think these influencers are the downfall of our society. They push products we don't need, lifestyles that make us upset with our own and pretend they're better people than us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the hate towards mom influencers is way out of proportion.

Look, we’ve set up a society where moms are expected to stay home and parent 24/7, yes also expected to contribute 50% of the finances. Most men cannot afford to provide for a family on their salary alone. Some moms found a way to both stay home and make money. Good for them. I’m not going to fault them for finding a solution in a nearly impossible set of circumstances.

People also think the life of an influencer is easy. Take some pictures, post videos. It’s not. It is a grind. Landing one brand deal takes weeks if not months.

Because they're so FAKE. That's why they get all the hate that they do. I truly think these influencers are the downfall of our society. They push products we don't need, lifestyles that make us upset with our own and pretend they're better people than us.

You act like they invented this. Capitalism has run on this concept since the beginning.

Now it has been decentralized and democratized on social media. Don't hate the players hate the game. Or get off of social media.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The law should be changed so that these records are not available to the public in general.

For example, these are the rules to get a copy of a marriage license in NYC. There should be something similar for the death certificate. It would be better to have those records anonymized, where you could get general statistics of how many people die of certain things. No reason for it to be public.

Who is eligible to order a certified copy of a marriage record?

People eligible to get a marriage certificate:

Spouses
Other people who have a:
documented judicial or other proper purpose
New York State Court Order

If you are not a spouse, you must document a judicial or other proper purpose. For example, you may need a marriage certificate to claim a benefit. You would need an official letter from the agency saying that you need the marriage record to process the claim.

I disagree with death, marriage and divorce records being private. They should not be. Redact any PII, but they should be releasable. There's lot of reasons they're needed. The biggest one is so that cheaters can be found out easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The influencer chooses to put themselves (and often their family, home, etc) out there for profit. They do this willingly to cash in and they have NO issue spending (and bragging about) the spoils.

But then when someone happens - a death, a crime, whatever, they immediately sue to have otherwise public documents (police reports, etc) sealed.

It just seems hypocritical to me. Especially when the documents would be public record for literally anyone else.

I don’t know or care about this specific influencer, it’s just one example and I’ve seen it with others. I just find the whole thing so hypocritical when your entire business model is having the public up in your business.

https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/new...riggs-death-records/

Well couldn't "literally anyone else" sue to prevent their disclosure as well? There's special law for influencers, she just has a reason to use the legal tools available that most of us don't have. If my kid died, there likely wouldn't be any requests for the records, because I'm not someone anyone cares about.

But if a random person sued, they would most likely lose.

I definitely agree an argument could be made for why this is public in the first place. But I don’t think these folks should get special treatment when they put themselves out there. It’s like the Meghan/Harry thing. You can’t want all the attention and then be shocked when people are giving you too much attention.

You say the bolded based on what? The cases she cites (I've included the complaint below) don't suggest that there'd be any different outcome for a non-public figure. It actually seems like you're arguing for two sets of rules, once for people who "want all the attention" and one for the rest of us. Even if you fully think she's given up any right to privacy does that extend to her son? Does we all have a right to watch a three year old drown because of his mom's job?

It seems like you're letting your dislike of influencers (which I share) drive your thought process here, rather than the actual law or any kind of consistent reasoning that applies to everyone.

The complaint is here: https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/259...=false&sidebar=false

+1 op you just want to complain about influencers being gross/exploitative/hypocritical (they are, I agree) rather than a genuine concern for the use of public records laws. back to facebook for you, ok?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The law should be changed so that these records are not available to the public in general.

For example, these are the rules to get a copy of a marriage license in NYC. There should be something similar for the death certificate. It would be better to have those records anonymized, where you could get general statistics of how many people die of certain things. No reason for it to be public.

Who is eligible to order a certified copy of a marriage record?

People eligible to get a marriage certificate:

Spouses
Other people who have a:
documented judicial or other proper purpose
New York State Court Order

If you are not a spouse, you must document a judicial or other proper purpose. For example, you may need a marriage certificate to claim a benefit. You would need an official letter from the agency saying that you need the marriage record to process the claim.

I disagree with death, marriage and divorce records being private. They should not be. Redact any PII, but they should be releasable. There's lot of reasons they're needed. The biggest one is so that cheaters can be found out easier.

Police reports should not be public because they’re full of lies. They’re just information the police collected at the scene. Statements are often false or lies.

A police investigation on the other hand that has facts in it should be public.

[Anonymous]

Having fenced swimming backyard swimming pools is the law in most states.

Drowning is the leading cause of death of toddlers.

Most drownings of toddlers occur when there adults are in the area. Many drownings occur at family parties.

[Anonymous]

Hopefully this sad death will help promote pool safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apparently, before the child drowned, there were lots of comments on her posts telling her to fence her pool and she DELETED them. So the idea that she can just delete “bad” content like the 911 call or body cam footage is par for the course.

She also has videos showing that her young child knew how to open the door leading to the pool, by himself.

I have nothing against this influencer and I am sad for her. But in general, the public’s inappropriate and unhealthy interest in this child’s death is a direct result of the “content” she put out there. Influencers are harmful to society IMHO.


And most of all, influencers are harmful to themselves. She will no doubt film some long series talking about what happened, her grief, etc. And it will be monetized and those videos will make a bunch of money. Will she set up a foundation in honor of her child? Will she become a crusader of water safety? Or will she simply buy a bigger house and a nicer car? My money is on the latter.

Yes, she absolutely deleted every comment of people asking why no pool fence, how they got away with not having a fence, etc.

The best thing she can do is disappear from the public and raise her new baby completely offline. Otherwise, I don't think her mental health will stand up because so many people who sounded the alarm bells for years are upset with her.

They were negligent parents. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the hate towards mom influencers is way out of proportion.

Look, we’ve set up a society where moms are expected to stay home and parent 24/7, yes also expected to contribute 50% of the finances. Most men cannot afford to provide for a family on their salary alone. Some moms found a way to both stay home and make money. Good for them. I’m not going to fault them for finding a solution in a nearly impossible set of circumstances.

People also think the life of an influencer is easy. Take some pictures, post videos. It’s not. It is a grind. Landing one brand deal takes weeks if not months.

Because they're so FAKE. That's why they get all the hate that they do. I truly think these influencers are the downfall of our society. They push products we don't need, lifestyles that make us upset with our own and pretend they're better people than us.

You act like they invented this. Capitalism has run on this concept since the beginning.

Now it has been decentralized and democratized on social media. Don't hate the players hate the game. Or get off of social media.

Exactly this. Even ads from the 1800s are built off of completely fake problems invented from thin air.

People only had a problem once it was women who were able to do this as well. Same with Only Fans - nobody cared porn existed until it was women making money off of it.

If you don’t like it, don’t watch them. If you don’t want to buy the products, don’t. You have complete control over what you watch and buy.

[Anonymous]

The deaths of ok baby and Trigg within a few weeks make me wonder if there isn’t something about mom influencing that increase the chance of accidental death. There were rumors ok baby wasn’t fully strapped into his car seat in the one car accident that led to his death, and Emilie allegedly decided against the pool fence for aesthetic reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the hate towards mom influencers is way out of proportion.

Look, we’ve set up a society where moms are expected to stay home and parent 24/7, yes also expected to contribute 50% of the finances. Most men cannot afford to provide for a family on their salary alone. Some moms found a way to both stay home and make money. Good for them. I’m not going to fault them for finding a solution in a nearly impossible set of circumstances.

People also think the life of an influencer is easy. Take some pictures, post videos. It’s not. It is a grind. Landing one brand deal takes weeks if not months.

We have?

Plenty of moms work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm assuming the judges are deciding these cases on an individual level according to the facts. So, I'll trust them to make the decisions.

I would like the judge to say to her, “oh, so you think there is too much public interest in the death of your child? Maybe you should have thought about that before selling your family for profit.”

Does the public really need to see video footage of the child drowning??? No, they don't. [/quote]

I agree with the bolded. I don't know this influencer or exactly what happened. But there is enough vitriol on the internet that people would absolutely try to view the body cam footage of her dead son being pulled from the pool. And as a mother I can understand why she'd want to keep that from being public. There is no reason the public needs to see it, as foul play is not suspected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The law should be changed so that these records are not available to the public in general.

For example, these are the rules to get a copy of a marriage license in NYC. There should be something similar for the death certificate. It would be better to have those records anonymized, where you could get general statistics of how many people die of certain things. No reason for it to be public.

Who is eligible to order a certified copy of a marriage record?

People eligible to get a marriage certificate:

Spouses
Other people who have a:
documented judicial or other proper purpose
New York State Court Order

If you are not a spouse, you must document a judicial or other proper purpose. For example, you may need a marriage certificate to claim a benefit. You would need an official letter from the agency saying that you need the marriage record to process the claim.

THIS. People should be allowed privacy.

You're not owed someone's personal information just because they're an "influencer". Good lord...