User:Demiurge1000/Thoughts on WP:BLP

Wikipedia's policy on Biographies of living persons mentions that material about living persons in any Wikipedia page must follow all applicable laws in the United States of America. This does not mean that compliance with U.S. law is sufficient for compliance with Wikipedia policy on such material. The policy does not exist for the primary purpose of avoiding litigation. It exists for the primary purpose of avoiding the possibility of harm to living subjects -- and the avoidance of litigation is merely a fortuitous consequence of this. In other words, confidence that publication of material would not be defamatory (for example because it is sourced to an identifiable third party publication) does not establish that the material meets the requirements of WP:BLP. It should be expected that even respectable broadsheet newspapers or news websites will routinely publish material about living persons that may not be suitable as part of an encyclopedia.