Publishing false comments about others on social media can constitute defamation and result in serious legal consequences.
A North Queensland woman who made defamatory comments about her neighbours on a group Facebook page with between 4,800 and 4,900 registered members and then later falsely claimed that her Facebook account had been hacked has been ordered by the District Court of Queensland to pay $265,000.00 damages.
On 10 September 2021, the woman published a post to the Facebook group page with the text:-
“Paedophile 12 holbourne Street.”
Two further comments in relation to queries that were raised in relation to the original post were made by the woman. The first of those comments were:-
“When it’s your kid being touched then you wouldn’t be saying it’s a wild accusation.”
The second comment made in response to a question asking how the woman knew this was:-
“We know cos they tried getting our 6 year old to go with them multiple times.”
The posts were able to be saved by way of screenshots and were subsequently reproduced, republished and disseminated to other members of the public.
The neighbours subsequently became aware of the post and posted a comment to the effect that the comments were not true and that the matter would be taken to Court.
Nine months later, after court proceedings had commenced, one of the neighbours sustained injuries when the woman struck him with the vehicle she was driving. The Court considered that this incident demonstrated a lack of remorse on the part of the woman as well as a degree of animosity which is directed to the neighbours and particularly the male neighbour.
In assessing the damages to be awarded to the neighbours, the Court, found that the improper and unjustifiable conduct of the woman in publishing the comments, her failure to retract the publication or to have apologized and subsequent conduct in running over the male neighbour with a motor vehicle warranted the inclusion of Aggravated damages in addition to compensatory damages for the harm caused to the neighbours’ reputations.
Aggravated damages comprise an additional sum to take account of the special humiliation suffered by the plaintiff due to the nature of the defendant’s conduct in the commission of a wrong. Aggravated damages are awarded where the defendant’s conduct was so outrageous that an increased award is necessary to appropriately compensate injury to a plaintiff’s ‘proper feelings of dignity and pride’. In this case the female neighbour was awarded aggravated damages of $25,000.00 and the male neighbour was awarded aggravated damages of $40,000.00. In addition, the neighbours were each awarded $100,000.00. The woman was also to pay interest $14,178.32 interest and the neighbours’ legal costs.
While defamation proceedings often involve well known people and large media companies, this decision shows that the law of defamation also applies to users of social media sites. Restraint and care should be exercised by social media users before publishing comments about others.
