THE Irish equine community has seen a rise in the number of libel cases arising from postings on social media.Posting certain information can have legal implications, warned a legal expert this week.

Aoife Smithwick of Kavanagh Solicitors in Co Carlow, gave an insight to the libel laws around social media.

Smithwick, who deals with equine law, said: “These types of cases are now increasing. Since the introduction of the Defamation Act 2009, there have been a number of significant Circuit Court cases dealing with comments made on social media and on internet forums. Some of which have been at the maximum level of €75,000.

TRUTH MATTERS

“It is important that people are mindful when posting comments that they are not posting something that they cannot verify is truthful. The same applies for reposting and retweeting – by doing so, you are posting the same statement and are at risk of being held to account for same if it is defamatory and injures a person’s reputation,” said Smithwick.

“Before you write a comment, you should ensure that you are not committing an act which would fall within the Defamation Act. The 2009 Act defines a defamatory act as ‘a statement that tends to injure a person’s reputation in the eyes of reasonable members of society’. This statement must be made to one or more than one other party. Under the Irish Constitution, we do have a right to freedom of expression and this must be balanced with the rights given under the Defamation Act.

“People are entitled to freedom of expression, however, if their remarks are found to injure a person’s reputation, an award of damages is likely based on recent judgments. In a judgement in 2017, a party made untruthful comments on social media of a serious nature and as the plaintiff was employed, his employers raised the issue with him. The court held that the comments significantly injured the plaintiff and damages of €65,000 were awarded.

“Although remarks can be removed by someone when they have been posted, it is difficult to delete comments in full. If a party has shared or retweeted these comments, the original poster has no control over the matter. The 2009 Act did revoke the multiple publication rule, that is in the past each publication of defamatory material could be deemed to be a separate cause of action. The court does have a discretion under S.11 of the 2009 Act to “grant leave to a person to bring more than one defamation action in respect of a multiple publication,” she added.