In a ruling that will likely make it difficult for websites and users to allow free commenting in the country, the high court of Australia has ruled that creators are liable for comments made by other people underneath their content. The ruling even extends to Facebook posts made by media outlets.
The High Court, the country’s equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court, rejected an appeal from News Corp and Fairfax Media, finding that both companies can be held liable for defamatory content published underneath online articles on websites operated by the two media companies.
As well as making it more difficult for news websites to maintain comments sections in the country, the law could also have wider ramifications. In the ruling, Australian judges stated that people who operate Facebook pages should be liable for comments underneath their posts.