A High Court decision handed down on 8 September 2021 relevant to defamation by third party-publishers, has confirmed that publishers are responsible for defamatory third-party comments posted on their social media accounts.  The High Court’s decision effectively widens the scope of what satisfies the requirement of ‘publication’ under defamation, and specifically who is liable as a ‘publisher’.

The key takeaway being the decision places responsibility on users and organisations who operate social media platforms to monitor public comments or switch comments off. While the laws are under review and may change, ASPI will monitor and moderate comments on our Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn accounts, and disable them when it is not possible to appropriately moderate.