A decision by the Australian High Court in the Voller case (see here for the background) has been cited by a law firm in a letter to a Facebook group administrator demanding the removal of allegedly defamatory content. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has previously said that the law should be changed to stop protecting social media should they continue to refuse identifying anonymous commenters.
Dylan Voller, an Aboriginal-Australian, sued Australian media companies over comments made on their pages. Voller came to public attention after ABC documented his mistreatment in a youth detention center in the Northern Territory. The story led to a royal commission.
Last month, an Australian high court ruled that median companies could be held liable for comments posted on their social media pages.
Now, a law firm has sent a letter to a Facebook group administrator demanding the removal of allegedly defamatory comments. In the letter, the law firm cited the high court decision in the Voller case.
The letter was sent by the director of Loughton Yorke, which is representing Bayswater city council mayor Filomena Piffaretti, to the administrator of a local community group James Kozak. The letter points to posts and comments in the group that defamed Piffaretti. According to the letter, the posts were efforts to ridicule and humiliate the mayor, and they implied she was not fit for office.
The letter demanded that Kozak remove the posts and apologize.
“As the administrator of the Group you bear clear legal liability for the material published within the Group,” the letter states.
“We refer you Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Voller; Nationwide News Pty Limited v Voller; Australian News Channel Pty Ltd v Voller [2021] HCA in which the High Court of Australia has held that anyone that administers a social media account can be held liable for defamatory comments published on social media accounts.”
Speaking to Guardian Australia, Yorke praised the high court judgement in the Voller case.
“Social media and digital platforms have been a largely unregulated space and the law has failed to keep pace with the technology,” he said. “For far too long defamation, bullying, harassment and intimidation – often directed at women in public roles – has been difficult to action or remedy on these social media platforms.
“The high court in Voller has taken a massive step towards rectifying this.”
Kozak told Guardian Australia that he would not cave to the letter’s demands until it is proven that he is liable for comments posted on the group.
The head of public policy at Facebook Australia Josh Machin has in the past warned about decisions that require the company to hand over personal data, saying that “rigorous checks and balances” were necessary to make sure the data was provided only when appropriate.
The Australian government has proposed the removal of laws protecting social media platforms if they continue refusing to provide data that would help identify people accused of defamation and harassment.
“They should have to identify who they are, and you know, the companies, if they’re not going to say who they are, well, they’re not a platform any more, they’re a publisher,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said last month.
This week, Nationals MP Anne Webster introduced a bill proposing fines for social media companies that refuse to remove defamatory content after being issued a notice by the online safety watchdog, the eSafety Commissioner.
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