Case Law, Ireland: McKeogh v John Doe 1 (No.2), Facebook, Google and mandatory take down injunctions

In November 2011, Eoin McKeogh was falsely branded as a thief on YouTube, Google, Facebook and a number of websites.  This was the result of a video and accompanying material which wrongly identified him as a man leaving a taxi without paying the fare in Monkstown, Dublin.  Mr Keogh has, since that date, made great efforts to remove this material from the internet.

Case law, Northern Ireland, HL (a minor) v Facebook, How can the courts manage the Facebook phenomenon? – Rosalind English

HL (A Minor) v Facebook Incorporated, The Northern Health and Social Care Trust, The Department of Justice for Northern Ireland and others  [2013] NIQB 25.  In this somewhat chaotic action, the plaintiff sued ten defendants, in anonymised form by her father and next friend.  

Case Law, Northern Ireland, AB Ltd v Facebook Ireland, Libel damages for anonymous posts

On 6 February 2013 Mr Justice McCloskey in the High Court of Northern Ireland handed down judgment in the case of AB Ltd and Ors v Facebook Ireland Ltd ([2013] NIQB 14).  We had a post about this decision on 9 February 2013.  The case concerned what the judge described as a “campaign of public vilification and harassment of the second, third and fourth named plaintiffs by way of publications made upon the Facebook website.” [5]  The full judgment is now available. 

News: Northern Ireland Judge awards £35,000 damages for anonymous Facebook libels

On 6 February 2013, in the High Court in Belfast, Mr Justice McCloskey awarded libel damages against an unidentified anonymous individual who abused two directors and a member of staff at a Belfast company.  The plaintiffs’ claim against Facebook Ireland Limited was dismissed.

Fighting anonymity with anonymity: open justice and cyberbullying – Eoin O’Dell

Say you are a 15-year old girl. What would you do if you find a fake Facebook profile which contains a photograph of you, a slightly modified version of your name and other particulars which identified you, which discusses your physical appearance and weight in derogatory terms, and which includes scandalous sexual commentary about you?  First, you’d contact Facebook, to have the fake profile taken down and to identify the IP address associated with it.

Canada, AB v Bragg Communications: What’s in a Name? Supreme Court allows libel plaintiff to proceed anonymously – Paul Schabas and Adam Lazier

On 27 September 2012 the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision A.B. v. Bragg Communications (2012 SCC 46) a case which deals with the balance between the open courts principle, privacy, and the rights of children.  The Court permitted a teenager to proceed anonymously in her application to find out the identity of her alleged cyberbullies.  The Court did, however, deny her application for a broader publication ban.

News: Northern Ireland judge orders Facebook to identify account holders

On Friday 17 August 2012 the High Court in Belfast ordered Facebook to identify anonymous account holders anonymous posters responsible for abusive messages about a Belfast company and three of its  employees.   Mr Justice Weatherup also made an order anonymising the claimants on the basis that identification would only draw more public attention to them.

The Judge was told that the series of abusive messages attacking the Northern Ireland company had been posted on Facebook over several months, by people using pseudonyms.  The claimants had been unable to find out who was sending the messages.

Social Media Use Revisited – the Counter

We have previously drawn attention to Gary Hayes’ “Counter” for Social Media use which shows the amount of social media activity taking place at any given moment. This can be found at the bottom of this post.   It suggests that our blog post today was one of over 2 million posted worldwide in the past 24 hours – along with 175 million tweets and an astonishing 3.2 billion likes and comments on Facebook.