Hi Everyone,
I have a few questions about Social Media, particularly Facebook and alleged defamatory posts made by a user.
Apologies is this is long winded.
If a person posts a comment on a Facebook Page, lets say a particularly Church's Facebook page and the comment was deemed to be in fact defamatory, could they (The church diocese) take legal action?
The comment was in the lines of "This is just another example of said church sleeping with the Government"
From my understanding, under Section 9 of the Defamation Act, companies with 10 or more employees or which are formed for something other than financial gain cannot sue for defamation.
I would assume a church is still an organisation and a particularly large one at that, and would fall under these two categories.
If another member of that page took offense to the so called defamatory comment, could they take action against the person who posted that said comment?
Again, from my understanding. A recent decision by the Supreme Court of New South Wales, upheld by the NSW Court of Appeal, has determined that administrators of Facebook pages may be considered the ‘publishers’ of posts by others, and may therefore be liable for defamatory comments. It is also up the the page administrators to monitor or hide the comments.
I personally do not believe said comment defamed a person and/or the Church either directly or indirectly, or is capable of doing so.
I also do not believe the said comment is likely to:
Thank you for your time.
I have a few questions about Social Media, particularly Facebook and alleged defamatory posts made by a user.
Apologies is this is long winded.
If a person posts a comment on a Facebook Page, lets say a particularly Church's Facebook page and the comment was deemed to be in fact defamatory, could they (The church diocese) take legal action?
The comment was in the lines of "This is just another example of said church sleeping with the Government"
From my understanding, under Section 9 of the Defamation Act, companies with 10 or more employees or which are formed for something other than financial gain cannot sue for defamation.
I would assume a church is still an organisation and a particularly large one at that, and would fall under these two categories.
If another member of that page took offense to the so called defamatory comment, could they take action against the person who posted that said comment?
Again, from my understanding. A recent decision by the Supreme Court of New South Wales, upheld by the NSW Court of Appeal, has determined that administrators of Facebook pages may be considered the ‘publishers’ of posts by others, and may therefore be liable for defamatory comments. It is also up the the page administrators to monitor or hide the comments.
I personally do not believe said comment defamed a person and/or the Church either directly or indirectly, or is capable of doing so.
I also do not believe the said comment is likely to:
- cause the Church to be shunned, shamed or avoided by worshipers;
- adversely affect the reputation of the Church in the minds of right-thinking members of society; or
- damage to the churches professional reputation by suggesting a lack of qualifications, skills, knowledge, capacity, judgment or efficiency in his or her trade, business or profession.
Thank you for your time.
