Damaging untruths are widely punished, either as civil offenses, criminal offenses, or both, in the US and elsewhere; countries differ in details of where the burden of proof lies in truth&#x2F;untruth of harmful statements, what the <i>standard</i> of proof required is, what degree and kind of harms are covered, and whether and how those kind of rules vary for different categories of harmful statements.<p>In general, these punishments reflect the common belief that <i>infliction of harm without consent of the harmed</i> is improper, and warrants either punishment or compensation or both.<p>And, anyway, ostracism is a punishment (historically viewed as a fairly severe one.)