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CNN Shut Down its Facebook Page in Australia After Court Liability Ruling

posted by martyb on Friday October 01 2021, @05:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the glad-we-are-not-hosted-down-under dept.

DannyB writes:

CNN shut down its Facebook page in Australia after court liability ruling:

CNN shut down its Facebook page in Australia on Wednesday, after an Australian court ruled that media outlets are liable for defamatory user-generated comments.

[...] The deteriorating effects of the court's ruling on online speech in Australia serve as a warning of what's to come if U.S. lawmakers succeed in their efforts to weakening protections against such legal decisions in the United States.

[...] The court's ruling previews the grim future in store if U.S. politicians get their way and dismantle Section 230, the keystone U.S. law that shields websites from liability over user-generated content. Without it, social media platforms and any other website with user-generated content—especially those without Facebook's deep pockets—would likely die. Both Republicans and Democrats, President Joe Biden included, would like it dismantled.

Should the person doing the defaming be liable, or the owner of the page the defamation is posted on be liable?

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Friday October 01 2021, @09:25PM (1 child)

    by MostCynical (2589) on Friday October 01 2021, @09:25PM (#1183484) Journal

    if every corporate facebook page dried up, and it was just people chatting and posting pictures of their children, it would be a far nicer place.
    as it is is, the whole place is infested with shills and cranks with agendas..

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
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  • (Score: 2) by choose another one on Saturday October 02 2021, @03:31PM

    by choose another one (515) on Saturday October 02 2021, @03:31PM (#1183668)

    Nothing I can see in the (reporting of the) judgement limits liability to corporate pages, it is at best limited to any "owner" of a "social media page".

    I noted the following in the judgement, p68 ( https://eresources.hcourt.gov.au/downloadPdf/2021/HCA/27 [hcourt.gov.au] ):

    Were it not so, all Facebook page owners, whether public or private, would be publishers of third-party comments posted on their Facebook pages,

    This is in one of the dissenting opinions, ie. the losing arguments. Ergo it _is_ so, and therefore ALL facebook page owners publishers of third party comments, and liable for them. In Australia.

    If you successfully sue the provider of public toilets for graffiti on the walls, a toilet is lost.
    If it keeps happening, then sooner or later no one has anywhere to pee when they are out.

    And nothing of value is lost ?