Libel online?

[Guest]

Removed

[pt2537]

Just seen an 'interesting' thread on a Facebook page where Person A said he felt Person B had reacted badly to criticism - Person B had released a press statement over criticism received for an event they had organised. The event itself wasn't well received by a large number of people.

Person A posted on Facebook stating he felt Person B had got quite "stroppy" about the criticism (not in direct reply to Person B, but in an independent thread of which Person B has not partaken) and if they felt so strongly about being criticised, maybe they should step down hinting to let someone else take over next time. Person A also posted their own criticism of the event in question, but it seemed fair and just given their were many other comments of the same.

Person C then steps in.

Person C appears to be familiar with Person B certainly professionally and maybe personally. Person C accuses Person A of bullying Person B online. Person A refutes this, and asks Person C to withdraw the comment. Person C doesn't, says it again (several times) and basically then invites Person A to "bring it on" when Person A mentions legal action for libellous comments.

Person A feels they have been libelled [as an online bully], when no actual interaction has actually taken place between them and Person B, (the definition of bully requires interaction between two or more parties) and subsequently as the page in question is extremely popular and has a large number of visitors who interact with the page, that they have been defamed, and their reputation sullied.

To some it is of course 'handbags at dawn', but from a legal point of view, does Person A have any recourse over Person C for libel, as the comments the latter person made did seem unwarranted, without foundation and an attempt to head off the criticism of Person B that Person A was making.

My own, non-professional layman's view is yes, he does, as Person C has called him a bully, accused him of bullying, and refused point blank to retract his statement. Whilst there is no legal definition of a bully insofar as I am aware, it is a derogatory term one could use where it is not true, and therefore could be deemed defamatory.

Thoughts. Discuss.

Under the law of England and Wales, a defamatory statement is one which tends to lower the claimant in the estimation of right thinking members of society generally (Sim v Stretch [1936] 2 All ER 1237). Whether the statements made are libel will depend on a number of factors, and of course the Defamation Act 2013 has brought in the requirement to show serious harm too (see s1 Defamation Act 2013)

Whether the person could bring a claim is a question that is not immediately clear based on the limited info above but it may well be possible

[CLL1]

Yeah, seems unlikely it would clear the s1 threshold in my personal view.