COURT’S FACEBOOK RULING HAS MEDIA ORGANISATIONS FACING A THORNY PROBLEM

摘要

Media organisations in Australia, who are not awash in the green stuff, will have to fork out a goodly amount to hire moderators for their Facebook and other social media accounts - or face the likely prospect of paying damages for defamation or libel. This is clear from the High Court judgement earlier this week, which held that owners of Facebook pages are responsible for comments posted by third parties in response to material that they (the owners) had placed therein. The ruling was made in a case involving former Northern Territory youth detainee Dylan Voller, with the comments in question having been posted below news reports from numerous outlets on their Facebook pages.