Earlier this month, Fairfax and News Corp lost a bid in the high court to escape liability for allegedly defamatory comments posted on their Facebook pages in response to articles about Dylan Voller, whose mistreatment in the Northern Territory’s Don Dale youth detention centre led to a royal commission. The five-two judgment went far beyond just finding media companies were responsible for comments made on their Facebook pages, finding that merely facilitating comments amounted to “participation” in the communication of defamatory material, even if the original poster was not aware of the content of later comments.
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