The recent High Court case of Australian New Channel Pty Ltd v Voller [2021] HCA 27 (Fairfax) found a business which published ‘posts’ on their Facebook page was liable for defamatory comments made by third parties to that post. Liability may be found irrespective of the publisher’s intent and the relevance of the comment to the original post. [Read more…]
defamation
The tort of injurious falsehood
15 February 2021 by
Injurious falsehood is a tort which arises when a person makes false representations about the goods and services of a person or company. The representations can be either written or spoken, and must encourage others not to deal with the person or business, in turn resulting in damage. Notably, injurious falsehood offers a remedy when a cause of action for defamation is not available under the Defamation Act 2005 (Cth)(Act). [Read more…]
Warning – Facebook trolls ordered to pay $150k damages
24 December 2020 by
In the recent unreported case of Moy v Isaac & Smith, featured in an article published by the Courier Mail on 15 November 2020, two online trolls were ordered to pay $150,000 to a wedding planner after creating a number of defamatory Facebook posts about her business. [Read more…]
Emojis used online can be defamatory – watch out!
23 September 2020 by
In the recent New South Wales case of Burrows v Houda [2020] NSWDC 485 , the Court was faced with the difficult question of whether an emoji is capable of having a defamatory meaning. As the case was a first for Australia, the Court relied upon UK case law, as well as the ordinary definition of ‘emoji’, in considering the meaning behind the emoji used. [Read more…]
Aussie Court orders Google to unmask reviewer
18 March 2020 by
Online reviews are crucial to most business’ online presence. While some reviewers openly share their identity along with their comments, many choose to remain anonymous. In the case of false, misleading or defamatory online reviews, this can create a host of issues for businesses seeking to remove the review or commence legal proceedings against a reviewer. This was evident in the recent case of Kabbabe v Google LLC [2020] FCA 126. [Read more…]
