
Swiss court fines man $4,000 for 'liking' defamatory posts - phr4ts
http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/31/technology/facebook-like-defamation-switzerland/
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anigbrowl
_" The defendant clearly endorsed the unseemly content and made it his own," a
statement from the court said._

This seems facially absurd given how likes/ retweets/ whatever are often used
to communicate acknowledgement rather than approval in social media, but then
it's also true that people systematically promote content by these methods as
well. This is shallow reporting that doesn't give much context for the case; I
inf it hard to believe that any court in a country with a well-developed legal
system would come to a decision and levy a relatively large fine based only on
the bare facts in the article.

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flukus
I can't wait for the impact this will have on astro turfing companies. The
people paying for an army of bot's to upvote articles defaming a climate
scientist for instance, will now be legally liable for that.

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anigbrowl
That's a bit previous, as my my grandmother used to say. I'd need to see a lot
more context and also to see this ruling adopted in other jurisdictions before
I'd expect any sort of impact on that - I don't know much about Swiss law and
it's equally possible that this judgement might be overturned because the
judge misunderstood how social media works, for example.

OTOH I do wish there were some sort of legal remedy against such fakery.

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legostormtroopr
My 'vote' of this story (anonymous, public or otherwise) should not be taken
as approval or endorsement of the story, the author of said story or the
poster of aforementioned story on this community site.

As per the community rules, 'votes' are only an indication of my
recommendation of this story as one of interest for the site on which it was
posted. Any legal action regarding the 'voting' on this story MUST be directed
at the community site, as the responsible body for setting the rules for
continued engagement with the community.

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RichardHeart
I'm glad Swiss law doesn't affect people much outside Switzerland. I prefer to
not be fined thousands of dollars for what I like or not. What if I thumbs
down something that's true, is that also defamation?

This ruling is bullshit. The amount of legal waste spent on enforcing stray
likes would be insane. This is an obvious violation of free speech. Let people
that defame pay for their crime themselves. The idea that "liking" something
defamatory can cost you a few thousand dollars means you better not attend the
wrong speeches, that could be considered liking. You better not link to
peoples opinions (could be considered liking.) And you better not like an
honest part of someones post, while disliking another, because there's no half
like button. This ruling is garbage.

