A 2015 incident with someone demonstrating zero legal experience (and non-existent legal team) sent a hilariously bad legal threat.
The original comments remained, and this image is still found floating teh intarwebs.
There was no 'client' nor any professional representation with those people, just another manipulative abuser pretending to have a scrap of credibility.
Some other examples:
In 2003, an employee of a GTA-based event used aggressive assertions seeking a physical interaction in response to being repeatedly told to leave people alone. It is with 100% certainty that person will not, nor ever again be a convern to anyone else's safety or well-being again.
Circa 2005/2006, a large GTA-based event organization was alleged to have threatened dealers with the loss of their tables if they also participated at a rival event. This was on top of intentionally running similar named events around the same time of other organizations as a method of manipulation.
Threats & Manipulation:
Use of threats to coerce or otherwise gain advantage is a huge red flag.
I have personally witnessed it over the course of 30+ years in fandom played out with various levels of absurdity, many times sharing one or both of the following:
1) Efforts to suppress or hide wrongdoing instead of taking appropriate corrective actions
&
2) Over-reacting with hilariously illogical/false/bad threats (legal or otherwise).
‘Stop that/do this – or else’ is an interaction that should immediately be addressed and assessed based on (lack of) merit.
Also in regards to manipulation, a big red flag is the emphasis or offerly, heavy-handed control of optics or the image of an organization - especially when those in charge are engaged in red flags, or other blatant wrongdoing.
It's a common theme that wrongdoers are more concerned with how they look instead of being accountable or even attempting reasonable remedies for their actions. FyreFest is an infamous example, it was a fraud operation behind questionable cease and desist notices sent to people who were victimized by their actions.
Enforcing legal contracts is one thing, using manipulative and threating language (often with deception) to achieve questionable outcomes is another.
Unfortunately there are those who decide it to be a great idea (spoiler alert: IT'S NOT) to pretend to have legal knowledge or access to legal services and use such manipulation. Often these attempts share common themes of being (hilariously) incorrect, illogical, and having ZERO merit or credibility. See also 'LOLsuit'.
Social media account name Dillweed99* randomly showing up in mentions making demands doesn't exacty have the same merit of a registered letter or electronic mail from a named and accredited professional legal service.
Interestingly there are two legal concepts in Ontario, Canada (where RFIF is based) regarding legal actions involving allegations of defamation (also referred to as slander, which is spoken, and libel, which is printed/published/etc):
1. Ontario has the Libel and Slander Act, setting timeframes and a six week Libel Notice period to notify the person(s)/organization(s). Telling someone they've got hours to remove unspecified comments is a dead giveaway something is stinky. Maybe talk to a real lawyer (if they're willing to chat for free, just making sure people aren't assuming it'll be free of cost) to see what's really involved to make such a case up here .
2. Canada has very strong Anti-SLAPP (cool link) laws. Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (wiki link) are a tactic used, among other things, to silence critics. I'm of the belief that the sharing of facts and opinions based on those facts are essential for discourse, learning, develpment, and growth - I'd like to believe the laws up here reflect that.
See also personal attacks.
Obligatory advisory, this is not legal advice. Just sharing my opinions and my perception of reality based on professional and personal experience.
* Dillweed99 does not refer to any known actual person, living or otherwise.