The increased use of free social networking websites, like Facebook, also has a downside. In the UK a court has awarded Mr Mathew Firsht a considerable amount of damages after he discovered that a false profile of himself had been created on Facebook. Mr Firsht runs a company called Applause Store Productions which provides live audiences for television shows. On 4 July 2007 Mr Firsht discovered that a profile of him had been made on Facebook containing incorrect and defamatory information. Facebook groups had also been created called “Has Mathew Firsht lied to you?”
The majority of the defamatory material was found on this group page which alleged that Mr Firsht owed a person a large amount of money and had consistently lied and tried to avoid paying the amount. The webpage had already been up and running for two weeks when Mr Firsht discovered it and Facebook removed it once they were contacted by Mr Firsht. It was discovered that the page had been created by the defendant, Mr Grant Raphael, with whom Mr Firsht had been friends at school in Brighton, UK. Apparently Mr Raphael also had a business within the entertainment sector which was not as successful as Mr Firsht’s.
The defendant argued that strangers who had been to his house during a party must have created the page on his computer. This was completely rejected by the court as implausible and far-fetched. The court awarded Mr Firsht £15,000 for libel which included an amount for aggravated damages. The court felt that the libel was very serious and that even though there was only direct evidence that 4 persons had read the website, it had been easily accessible for two weeks which meant Mr Firsht’s reputation had been harmed. Even though the page alleged that Mr Firsht and his company were not to be trusted, the court did not award more than £5,000 damages to the company as there was no actual evidence that the company had suffered any financial loss.
The case shows that it is very easy to create such false profiles which can easily harm a person’s or company’s reputation. In this case it was easy to discover who had created the Facebook page, but if an Internet café computer had been used, then identifying the wrongdoer in order to bring an action against them would have been difficult.
Source: “Facebook Firsht”, CMS Cameron McKenna, Law-Now, 30 July 2008
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