Social media lawsuits are multiplying

Defamation is becoming a huge issue on social media sites as lawsuits for this particular offence are rising dramatically.

In Canada and the US, 15 percent of all Web 2.0 rulings were on defamation cases. In France, it’s 49 percent and in Quebec it’s more than 10 percent.

Other infractions committed in cyberspace that are processed by our legal system include pedocriminality, harassment and threats, and privacy breaches.

These results are taken from the second phase of an extensive research project on Web 2.0 criminal activity. The project is lead by Benoit Dupont, director of the International Centre for Comparative Criminology, and Vincent Gautrais who holds the Université de Montréal Chair in e-security and e-business law. These results were obtained following the analysis of 400 rulings from everywhere around the world.

“We often tend to believe that the Internet has increased the risk of threats and harassment, but that isn’t true,” says Gautrais. “It is defamation cases that have increased exponentially with the arrival of social media.”

According to Gautrais, two factors contribute to this increase: anonymity and the permanence of the information. “Behind the veil of anonymity, users are more likely to lose all inhibitions and make comments that can have serious consequences,” says Gautrais. “Contrarily to radio or television, these comments are forever on the web for all to see. There is therefore, in social media, a greater potential threat for a reputation to be damaged now that everyone can publish information.”

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Source: healthcanal.com
By: Marie Lambert-Chan