"x x x.
An original post on Facebook or Twitter can lead to a defamation suit. Libel is a written statement that is false and damaging to a person’s reputation. Note that the statement must be false, so many opinions are inactionable. However, statements of false facts can be the basis for a successful lawsuit. In addition, the law cares about the state of mind of the defamer. The person who made the false statement must have known it was false or acted recklessly or irresponsibly.
However, reposting or retweeting a libelous statement is unlikely to result in a lawsuit. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects the publisher of any information provided by another information content provider as long as the language of the Facebook post or tweet is unchanged.
Because of the First Amendment, United States law makes it hard to bring and win a defamation suit. The burden of proof is on the plaintiff to establish that the statement was false and that the publisher knew it was false or acted recklessly. This burden of proof is especially difficult to sustain if the target of the disparaging statement is a public official or someone in the public domain, like a politician, government official, celebrity or performer.
Some states will consider a retracted tweet the end of any defamation action, and others will only use retraction as mitigation of damages. The problem with the Internet, of course, is that once something is published, it can never totally disappear. No libel cases involving Twitter have gone to trial yet, but several high profile cases have settled:
- Courtney Love agreed to pay $430,000 to fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir after making damaging remarks regarding Simorangkir.
- An NBA referee sued Associated Press for a Tweet that claimed the referee had made a second bad call to make up for a first one. The Tweet was deleted and the AP paid the referee for his legal costs. x x x."
