The social media sphere has quickly become a new stage to be navigated carefully in these modern times. Often filled with deepening negativity and debacles that are dreadfully embarrassing for those involved – like the fallout over a Miss South Africa candidate and her history of crude tweets.
Now, lawyers at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH) have warned South Africans that sharing defamatory posts can mean serious trouble.
“It is important to understand that South African law considers repeating or sharing defamatory content as sufficient to constitute ‘publication’ and, thus, defamation in its own right, even if the repeater or sharer was not the author of the original defamatory post,” Timothy Smit, director, and Elizabeth Sonnekus, an associate in the firm’s dispute resolution practice, wrote in a recent note.
“So just by clicking share,” they warn, “you could be perpetuating the defamation, exposing yourself to a damages claim for defamation or to potential dismissal by your employer.”
Business Insider confirms that recent lawsuits have shown that employers can institute disciplinary proceedings against employees over their social media activity and online conduct.
Lawyers Smit and Sonnekus say that posting potentially harmful or controversial content could risk defamation claims. Claims that are costly to fight in court, and even costlier to lose.
A key case, the Constitutional Court in Le Roux versus Dey in 2011, confirmed that the law of defamation is designed to compensate a victim for any publication that injures the victim in their good name and reputation.
In this particular case, a group of schoolchildren created a suggestive image on their computers using the face of the deputy principal of their school. The teacher was awarded thousands in damages. The court defined defamation as the wrongful and intentional publication of a defamatory statement concerning the wronged party.
“With 1.62 billion users visiting Facebook each day (as of May 2020) – and approximately 145 million daily active users on Twitter (as of November 2019), the chances of a defamatory post going undetected are slim – in fact, you have more chance of the opposite result – going viral,” says CDH.
“We should have no sympathy for bigots and online ‘trolls’ – they should get what’s coming to them. But children, young adults and the uninitiated need to be made aware that, no matter how innocently they publish or share something online, that publication could jeopardise their future.”
Social Media considerations
Prudent users should consider creating new accounts for professional communications, or consider revising their posting history to rid themselves of any controversial posts that could see them in deep trouble in the future. Especially if users are going into any sort of public affair.
Facebook recently released a new feature to make the curating of social media posts very intuitive and simple.
Edited by Luis Monzon
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