Australian media companies may avoid liability for defamatory third-party comments on their social media posts if reforms supported by the nation’s attorneys general become law.
The Standing Council of Attorneys General has given in-principle support to reforms to modernise the nation’s defamation laws relating to search engines and social media platforms.
In a decision that had ramifications for any Facebook page administrator, the high court said last year media companies could be held liable for allegedly defamatory comments posted to their Facebook pages.
The case was sparked after Dylan Voller, whose mistreatment in the Northern Territory’s Don Dale youth detention centre led to a royal commission, sued some of Australia’s biggest media groups including the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian and Sky News over posts made by the public on their Facebook pages.
The New South Wales attorney general, Mark Speakman, said the amendments, which include a new innocent dissemination defence for internet intermediaries, would substantially upgrade Australia’s uniform defamation laws.
“The new innocent dissemination defence will be available to a person – other than an author, originator or poster of the matter – who provides or administers the online service by means of which the matter is published,” Speakman told Guardian Australia.
“This will include an individual or organisation who uses a facility on a social media platform to create and administer a public page.”
Speakman said under the new defence, a person or organisation running a Facebook page would need to receive a written complaint regarding any allegedly defamatory third-party comments before they could be held liable.
“Once the forum administrator has received a complaint, they must take reasonable steps to remove or otherwise prevent access to the matter within seven days in order to rely on the defence,” he said.
The changes, which would come into effect in 2024, are aimed at shielding all Facebook page administrators, not just media companies, from defamation lawsuits over posts by third parties.
They would provide some relief to media companies in Australia, some of which responded by dedicating more resources for comment moderation on social media, or simply shut off their comments on some posts.
In August, when releasing a discussion paper on defamation, Speakman said technology had advanced significantly since Australia’s uniform defamation laws were drafted 18 years ago.
“Almost anyone can post their views on a wide range of platforms at the touch of a screen or a button,” he said.
“In considering this reform, it is critical that we balance protecting free speech with the right of individuals to seek redress in appropriate circumstances for harm caused to their reputation.”
The reforms are a “pragmatic approach that is intended to strike a better balance between protecting reputations and not unreasonably limiting freedom of expression in the various circumstances where third parties publish defamatory matter via internet intermediaries”, the council said in a communiqué.
