High Court upholds that media outlets are ‘publishers’ of comments on Facebook posts
The High Court of Australia has ruled media outlets that run Facebook pages are the “publishers” of third-party comments on the platform, dismissing a second round of appeals by Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd, Nationwide News Pty Ltd and Australian News Channel Pty Ltd.
Outlets including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Sky News, The Centralian Advocate, and The Bolt Report are currently fighting a defamation case originally brought by Dylan Voller before the New South Wales Supreme Court.
In 2016, Voller featured in an ABC Four Corners episode that exposed the treatment of young people in Don Dale, a juvenile detention centre. He was shown wearing a spit hood in CCTV footage used in the program.
The likes of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, and Sky News ran stories about Voller, which were then shared on respective Facebook pages for the publications. Readers made comments on the Facebook posts. Voller’s claim is that some of these comments defamed him and that the outlets ‘published’ them.
