Snehal Upadhyay-
Published on: September 8, 2021, at 10:48 IST
The High Court of Australia pronounced a landmark Judgement and the media outlets for being actual publishers of the alleged defamatory comments which are posted by any third party on their official Facebook pages.
The Court quashed the contentions given by several media organizations like Fairfax Media Publications, Nationwide News and Australian News Channel, contending that publishers who are the people must be made aware of the consequences of posting any defamatory contents on their social media handles.
The Court while quashing such contentions stated that it had found that by facilitating and encouraging the comments, the media companies had also actively participated in it.
The Judgement enables the media organizations to get sued on the charges of defamation by former juvenile detainee Dylan Voller.
Voller sought to sue the television broadcaster and newspaper publishers alleging comments on the Facebook pages of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Centralian Advocate, Sky News Australia and The Bolt Report.
Voller filed a defamation case in the New South Wales Supreme Court in 2017 but the case was put on hold meanwhile there was a separate question being raised on whether the media companies can be held liable for Facebook users’ comments or not.
The media organizations had posted content on Voller’s time in a Northern Territory Juvenile Detention Center on their official pages following to which users gave defamatory comments on the post.
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