Facebook fake fined thousands in landmark libel case

Davey Winder
Friday, 25 July 2008 05:41

Business IT - Networking

Many people consider the setting up of a fake profile on a social networking site as almost the done thing. However, as the UK High Court ruled today, when you do it to exact revenge on someone else then you better be prepared to face the legal consequences...

Since the Internet first sprang into the collective consciousness of the planet, people have taken the opportunity to play personality games. Pretending you are someone else online has become almost an accepted part of virtual life.

Certainly the practise would appear to be rife when it comes to social networking sites, although more often than not there is no malice aforethought when creating an embellished profile. The High Court in London decided that was not the case when it ruled against freelance cameraman Grant Raphael and fined him a total of UKP £22,000 (AUD $45,500) for libel and breach of privacy.

The court decided that Raphael had created a fake Facebook profile which purported to be that of old school friend Mathew Firsht, with whom he had 'fallen out' some eight years previously. The profile, and a Facebook group going by the name of 'Has Mathew Firsht lied to you?' contained false claims about both his sexual and political orientation as well as false accusations of debt avoidance.

Although the profile was only active for 16 days before it was spotted and Facebook removed it, that was long enough for the Judge to award Mr Firsht UKP £15,000 (AUD $31,000) for libel, UKP £2000 (AUD $4100) for a privacy breach and another UKP £5000 (AUD $10,300) libel award to Mr Firsht's company which was also impacted by the false claims.

Media law specialist Susan Aslan told The Telegraph newspaper that there are a lot of people on Facebook these days with reputations to protect and the financial means to pursue the same if required. "Those people will be able to point to this action and say: Unless this stops and unless you pay some kind of damages, I will take action."