Defamation and Social Media: The Parcel that Keeps on Being Passed

Abstract

Reputation is an aspect of human existence that is given great importance and value. People spend their lives tirelessly striving to build a reputation that can do their perseverance justice and give their legacy strength. It only takes one moment, one comment, or one person to destroy it all. This becomes especially troublesome and unjust when the words being used to attack one’s reputation are false and malicious. In legal parlance, this phenomenon is called defamation and is a popular topic of study in both civil and criminal law. When we place the already menacing nature of defamation in today’s world, it becomes clear how the internet makes it exceedingly easy for it to occur, by virtue of the scope and swiftness of the digital realm. This transcendence of defamation from the physical world to the virtual one also raises many legal questions regarding the specific nature and evolution of the phenomenon, the present laws surrounding the issue and any possible adaptation it might have to undertake, to cope with modern developments. Hence, in its attempt to truly understand defamation in today’s digital world, this paper will, rather than studying the tort of defamation as a legal principle, look at how defamation takes place in an online context, specifically in relation to social media and networking platforms. It will shed light on the hazards associated with this form of defamation, and how these dangers are even more potent now than ever before. Lastly, but importantly, this paper will investigate the laws that govern cyber defamation and delve into the ever-important question that arises when investigating the issue: “who is liable?”