It’s not very often a news item pokes its head above the laughable parody of our national conversation. Get your duct-tape ready; on Wednesday the High Court issued a ruling that changes everything.
The most illustrious minds in Australia have decided to make social media account holders legally responsible for third party comments left on their pages and posts. To quote the court, an entity with an account like Facebook will be ‘liable for adverse material in the comments sections’.
To be clear, you – yes YOU– will be held accountable for the indecipherable malicious rambling of anonymous trolls instead of police tracking down the basement-dwellers behind the computer.
The court’s original decision was so ridiculous that most people assumed the whole nonsense would be overturned through the appeals process. On Wednesday, the appeal was dismissed.
The repercussions of this ruling are so immense and far-reaching that instead of mass hysteria, it’s been met with apathy.
It is difficult to tell if people are simply unaware of what’s happened, or firmly clinging to denial.
The original case involved a matter brought by Dylan Voller – a former Don Dale Youth Detention Centre inmate – against News Corp Australia, Fairfax Media, and Nationwide. Voller accused the media collective of defaming him via comments posted by trolls on their respective Facebook pages.
At the time, Facebook did not grant account holders any ability to disable or delete malicious comments. In other words,...
Read Full Story: https://www.spectator.com.au/2021/09/high-court-ruling-means-the-end-of-social-media-and-another-blow-to-free-speech/
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