Australian Court Rules Media Companies Responsible for Comments on their Facebook Pages

SYDNEY - Some of Australia's biggest media companies have lost a legal battle with a former youth detainee over allegedly defamatory comments posted about him on their Facebook pages. The high court has found the media groups are legally responsible as “publishers” for third parties’ comments on their Facebook pages.

Dylan Voller was held in youth detention in Australia’s Northern Territory.  His treatment  was the focus of a 2016 television documentary, which led to a wide-ranging inquiry into the mistreatment of inmates.  Images of him shackled to a chair wearing a spit hood sparked outrage. They also prompted some Facebook users to make allegedly defamatory remarks about him on the media companies’ pages online. As a result, Voller wants to sue several Australian media companies. The case has been held up by a separate legal dispute over whether the outlets were the publishers of users’ comments.