Daniel Neville

Facebook Slander

by Daniel Neville

2009/01/16

Image via Flickr, by Dani Luri under CC

Way back in 2007 I wrote a post about how what you say and do on a social network could just come back to haunt you. Now it seems like South Africa has its first case of someone being charged for posting defamatory messages on Facebook.  

According to news paper reports - see here, here and here, Duane Brady allegedly left a series of derogatory and defamatory comments on Daniella Cox's Facebook wall. 

Brady was arrested on Monday after Cox reported the comment to the police and is being charged with crimen injuria and common assault. For those who don’t know, (I had to look it up) crimen injuria is a criminal offense in South Africa and is committed when a person deliberately injures another’s dignity.  

It is going to be very interesting to see how this plays out because as Paul Jacobson, a Web and digital media lawyer points out, this is the first case in South Africa involving a Facebook posting and this case might well set an important precedent. And with the South African Facebook population showing few signs of slowing growth, now really is the time to start paying attention to the images, videos and comments you post and how they could end up affecting others’ privacy and dignity – and ultimately your freedom.     

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Comments

Thanks for the mention. I wrote a post the other day which deals with the legal issues in a little more detail and which your readers may find informative. The post is at http://webtechlaw.com/eldorado-park-man-prosecuted-criminal-defamation-facebook

Posted by Paul Jacobson on 2009/01/17

Hey Paul,

Thank you for the link to your post!

I had no idea that crimen injuria was prosocuted as criminal law rather than civil law.

Just out of interest, how would this alter the way in which you would defend yourself against charges of crimen injuria opposed to charges of defamation?

Going to be interesting to see how this one turns out.

Posted by Daniel Neville on 2009/01/19

Hi Daniel

Crimen injuria is a criminal act so it would be prosecuted in criminal court. It's civil equivalent would be defamation with a touch of privacy infringement.

Defending yourself against crimen injuria involves attacking the prosecution's efforts to prove each element of the crime (crimes comprise legal components that together constitute the crime) or hoping that the prosecution is unable to establish your guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on its own.

Posted by Paul Jacobson on 2009/01/19

is making remarks about someone's factual history but not using their name a crime?

Posted by adam k on 2009/11/02

@ Adam K

I am by no means an expert on this and you would have to double check anything I say: I would say making remarks about someones factual history is not a problem as long as you can prove it. Although that is quite hard to do unless you name them :)

Posted by Daniel on 2009/11/02

I have a sister that is having her name slandered on facebook - along with threats made towards her, all I can do for now is keep reporting all comments made, myself and another friend are currently doing this, but as fast as the posts/comments are deleted by facebook, he makes new ones, is there any way to put a stop to this. We are from New Zealand, we have already reported his emails to police as he was sending her threatening emails and obscene emails to her and as a result she's had to change her email. He knows what town we live in and makes comments that suggest he is watching us. He has made up most of his friends on facebook and uses them to leave numerous comments about my sister on his page. Is there anything we can do? Or someway of contacting facebook (other than reporting comments) to let them know the whole situation? He is a stranger to us and we are at a loss as to how he knows so much information about our family. Please help!!!

Posted by Kim on 2010/06/21

A sister of mine made some slandering remarks and false gender identity remarks about me on a friend of mine's face book wall. My friend emailed this to me as I am not a member of face book. What can I do about this? as what she put on there could very well be harmful to my life as I could possibly get killed due to her posting these terrible things about me. How can I report this to face book and have her charged legally for this?

Posted by Dianne Denton on 2010/08/12

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