{"id":687,"date":"2016-01-13T10:55:18","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T08:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/?p=687"},"modified":"2016-01-14T08:55:09","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T06:55:09","slug":"facebook-more-defamation-danger-and-navigating-the-minefield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/2016\/01\/13\/facebook-more-defamation-danger-and-navigating-the-minefield\/","title":{"rendered":"FACEBOOK: MORE DEFAMATION DANGER, AND NAVIGATING THE MINEFIELD"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"facebook\"<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026..\u2019tis slander, whose edge is sharper than the sword\u2026..\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Shakespeare)<\/strong><\/p>\n

A recent High Court decision confirms the dangers of posting (or even just allowing yourself to be associated with) any form of defamatory content on the Internet.<\/p>\n

An explosive mixture underlay the case: \u00a0an acrimonious divorce, on-going litigation still smouldering, and \u2013 the spark that lit the fuse – Facebook posts attacking the ex-wife. \u00a0 Two of the posts, authored by the ex-husband\u2019s new wife and appearing on her Facebook page, were found by the Court to have been defamatory \u2013<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A comment which effectively painted the ex-wife as being meddlesome and interfering, and<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A far more serious comment that implied impropriety relating to a photograph showing the ex-wife\u2019s 16 year old stepson being pelted with a wet sponge by one of her two minor children (a girl of 6 and a boy of 4) in the bathroom. Commenting that \u201conly a depraved mind can see impropriety\u201d in what was obviously a \u201cjovial domestic moment\u201d, the Court held that this second comment was \u201cscandalous to the extreme\u201d, suggesting that the ex-wife \u201cencourages and tolerates sexual deviation, even paedophilia\u201d. \u00a0The damage to her reputation was compounded by \u201csnide comments\u201d added to the posting by friends of the poster.<\/p>\n

In the end result both the poster (the new wife) and the ex-husband were ordered to pay R40,000 in damages to the ex-wife, together with legal costs. Navigating the minefield\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong> Reduce your risk with these pointers (take advice in doubt) –<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The first rule of thumb is obvious but also vital: \u00a0\u201cPost in haste, regret at leisure\u201d \u2013 if a comment is construed as defamatory you could be sued for millions (think of posts going viral), and you could even risk criminal liability in some cases. \u00a0Think twice before letting off steam on Facebook, Twitter or any other online platform!<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bear in mind that you may not be able to recall something once it\u2019s online. \u00a0Social media sharing means that as soon as a comment is out in cyberspace, you lose control of it. \u00a0It could easily live on out there forever.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Keep an eye on posts etc in which you are tagged. \u00a0In this case for example, although it was his wife who had actually written and posted the defamatory comments, the ex-husband was held to be equally liable for them because he knew he had been tagged in them and allowed his name to be coupled to them.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Even sharing or re-posting someone else\u2019s post (\u201cre-tweeting\u201d a tweet in Twitter) exposes you to the same<\/u> level of liability as the original poster.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is no protection to only hint at the identity of someone. \u00a0Whether the subject is specifically identified or not, the court will look at whether \u201ca reasonable Facebook member\u201d would in all the circumstances understand the posting to refer to that person. \u00a0Thus in this case both posts were held to have referred to the ex-wife even though she was identified only by her first name in one post, and not named at all in the second.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Equally, a statement which viewed individually doesn\u2019t seem defamatory may still be held to be defamatory when viewed collectively with other postings. \u00a0It is the collective effect of your postings that counts.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nor can you escape liability by framing something defamatory as a question rather than as a statement. \u00a0That\u2019s exactly what happened with the second post in this case, the Court holding that whilst the post was grammatically<\/u> framed as a question, there was a defamatory statement implicit in it.<\/p>\n

Last, but certainly not least, regularly check and adjust your privacy settings to control who can see your posts, and to ensure that you review all posts, updates, photos etc in which you are tagged before they are published on your Facebook wall (see https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/about\/tagging\/<\/a> for instructions on removing\/reporting tags).<\/p>\n

Source: Law DotNews October 2013<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u2026..\u2019tis slander, whose edge is sharper than the sword\u2026..\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0(Shakespeare) A recent High Court decision confirms the dangers of posting (or even just allowing yourself to be associated with) any form of defamatory content on the Internet. An explosive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":693,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions\/693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}