Is $40,000 fair punishment for setting up a fake Facebook profile?
People who use the Web often forget that many of the same rules that apply in the real world also apply online. Be it copyright laws, defamation of character, or libel, this type of legislation governs people’s behaviour regardless of the medium they choose to display it on. So when a guy set a fake Facebook account up for an old friend of his, he mustn’t have realised the consequences could be as dire as they turned out to be.
Mathew Firsht, managing director of a company which provides audience members for TV shows such as Top Gear and Big Brother sued former friend Grant Raphael for libel and misuse of personal information after discovering the latter had set up a fake Facebook profile in his name.
While there are many fake profiles on Facebook, this one was particularly harsh as it contained false information concerning Firsht’s sexuality, political views and financial viability. Raphael also set up a page related to Firsht’s business that asked the question ‘Has Mathew Firsht lied to you?’
According to PC Advisor, the information was online for 16 days before Firsht’s brother spotted it. Facebook was then notified, and the profile was removed. Facebook then told Firsht’s lawyers the location that the profile was created from: Grant Raphael’s home. Raphael tried to explain this by insisting gatecrashers must have set the pages up while at a party, but the judge said the claims were “utterly far-fetched” and “built on lies”.
After being found guilty, Raphael was ordered to pay £15,000 ($29,794) in libel damages, £2,000 (US$3,973) for breach of privacy, and £5,000 ($9,931) for libelling Firsht’s company, Applause Store Productions.
Ashley Hurst, a lawyer at the company acting for Firsht, told The Canadian Press:
This decision is likely to send shockwaves amongst the social networking community. There are many similar instances of libel and breach of privacy which go unchecked everyday. People need to realize that libel and privacy laws in the U.K apply just as much to online media as they do to newspapers.
This is an important point to remember when doing anything on the Web – the same rules apply as offline. If you wouldn’t be comfortable using a fake ID of a friend, or passing yourself off as someone you aren’t in real life, then don’t do what amounts to the same thing, on the Internet. As this case proves, the results can be quite expensive.
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