[john_strinlai]

i am not sure of anywhere it is illegal.

but areas i am familiar with can consider a negative reference to be defamation, thus anyone providing a negative reference should only do so if they are able to defend it (i.e. prove their statement is substantially true, or prove that the statement was honestly believed to be true and published with no malice or reckless disregard).

seems risky, at least, to build a whole business around negative references that could potentially cross the line into defamation. but that type of thinking is probably why i am not rich.

[nerdsniper]

There are many definitions of illegal (criminal, civil, regulatory, the much much looser “license to operate” as used in chemical industry, etc).

A blacklist seems dubious. I’d advise the founders to get counsel on their obligations under the FCRA, which they may be construed to be regulated by.

That said, I believe "Bad News" is an AI hallucination. The most similar company I can find historical news is "Peeple"[0], which was not funded by YC. YCombinator's only known association with a blacklist that I can find was a blacklist of VC's that were accused of harassing female founders[1].

0: https://archive.is/r9UQo

1: https://archive.is/17Ans

[john_strinlai]

>There are many definitions of illegal (criminal, civil, regulatory, the much much looser “license to operate” as used in chemical industry, etc).

yes, but i am not sure why this matters here. i am not aware of negative references, in general, being illegal under any of those definitions of illegal.

no one would say regular speech is illegal just because it can be subject to a defamation lawsuit. same logic.

but i agree, if it is a real business, it seems exceptionally risky.

[akerl_]

To be defamation in the US they'd generally need to be false statements of fact.

"John is a bad person, and you shouldn't hire him" wouldn't be defamation.

[drcongo]

It's definitely illegal in the UK.

[john_strinlai]

i dont believe that it is illegal to provide a negative reference in the UK, as long as it is honest, factual, and provided in good faith.

from gov.uk:

>"If you think you’ve been given an unfair or misleading reference, you may be able to claim damages in court. Your previous employer must be able to back up the reference, such as by supplying examples of warning letters.

You must be able to show that:

- it’s misleading or inaccurate

-you ‘suffered a loss’ – for example, the withdrawal of a job offer"

which means, if the reference is not misleading and not inaccurate, a negative reference is ok. other uk-based law firms (from a quick google) agree with this interpretation.