While the ESOP Committee may not have jurisdiction over the activities of non-members and their ethical behavior, you should know that a significant number of complaints that come to the committee are filed against members by non-members.
Some are clients, some are realtors, some are seller…and some may begin to originate from the message board.
I’ll explain…
If you, a member, delete or change the post of someone posting to the board for libel, slander or personal attack (the three criteria listed by Chris) the burden of proof is on you. Libel and slander can only exist if the statements were untrue AND were made with malicious intent. Untrue statements, by themselves, are NOT libelous or slanderous. TRUE statements that are damaging…are neither libelous or slanderous.
From this one post, you must be able to prove the malicious intent of the author and you must prove that the information is false.
If you are wrong and you have publicly officially represented his post as such, he may wish to file an ethics complaint against you for bias, malicious interference, or slander against him.
These complaints will fall under the jurisdiction of the ESOP Committee and will be reviewed and acted upon.
I will venture to say this this is one job that no one in his right mind will want…and those who aren’t, will only have for a little while.