Suing those who react to online libel "difficult"
Play
Criminalising the "aiding or abetting" of online libel and prosecuting those who simply receive and react to defamatory social media posts will be difficult if the complexities of cyberspace are ignored in the formulation of a cyber-libel law, according t
In their February 11 decision that was posted on the high court’s website on Friday, the majority justices demonstrated by analogy the difficulty of suing and penalising all people who express their reactions via Facebook or Twitter by liking, sharing, commenting, “favouriting” or retweeting.
The court last week struck down as unconstitutional the penalising of people who aid or abet online libel, as provided under the controversial Republic Act 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
However, the court, through the majority opinion written by Justice Roberto Abad, upheld online libel as a crime, although only the “original author” is to be penalised.
“Cyber-libel brings with it certain intricacies, unheard of when the Penal Code provisions on libel were enacted. The culture associated with Internet media is distinct from that of print,” the high court said.
