There is enough legislation to deal with cyber bullies, especially the Twitter trolls who abuse celebrities and other high-profile users on social media.
Social media expert Emma Sadleir spoke to The Star about the law and rights one has on such platforms.
She founded the Digital Law Company, which provides advice, guidance and education in the digital media field.
Sadleir said reputations can be made and destroyed within seconds on social media. “Reputation is everything. Everybody is a celebrity in the digital age.
"If somebody says Emma Sadleir is a paedophile, I am going to sue that person. But more importantly, I am going to deny it. I am not a paedophile and this anonymous person is causing me harm with such claims. It is therefore imperative that I take legal action to defend my reputation.”
Sadleir said social media exposes users to trolls and cyber bullies. “You can take legal action, but so often these days the law is just too slow. I deal with a lot of crisis-management cases, and the most important thing is to cure the reputational harm as quickly as possible.
"This can be through a media-release tweet to say ‘this is not true’, which is powerful,” she said.
She stressed that reporting it to the various social media platforms to say "this person is abusing your platform” is a quicker and inexpensive option than the legal processes.
Sadleir pointed out that there are three requirements to sue for defamation.
“Firstly, what the person says must be public. It doesn’t matter whether it’s to three people or 3 million.
"Secondly, it must refer to you directly or indirectly. I must be able to work out who you are referring to.
"Lastly, it must be defamatory, meaning it must hurt your reputation.”
The same rules apply to any published content on social media. "There is no difference in defamation law whether you put it on the billboard, print it in the newspaper, say it on radio or television, or put it on Facebook or Twitter.
"As soon as the content has been published to a third party, we treat it as if it's published on the front page of a newspaper,” said Sadleir.
According to the social media law expert, all defamation applies in the eyes of the law. “Of course we have additional problems of anonymity on the internet
"So often the most difficult part of any legal case is trying to find out who is behind that account.
"So we would need to get computer forensics specialists to identify the account and trace the address,” she said.
Sadleir’s suggestions follow this week’s “exposé” of local celebrities’ dirty laundry on Twitter.
Newlyweds Nandi Madida and Zakes Bantwini were victims of the exposé, which alleged that Bantwini was cheating on his wife.
An unknown user called Blossoms, with the Twitter handle @MinenhleParker, used the platform to expose the celebrity couple’s alleged marital issues.
The Madidas have not yet responded to or addressed the allegations reported on the Twitter thread.
Sadleir advised celebrities to take legal action, but warned that they should be prepared to spend money and time.
“What we are also saying is that a lot of content on social media is not for the benefit of the public. With trolling and cyber bullying there is no truth and public benefit It's harassment,” Sadleir pointed out.
“Another option is to obtain a protection order under the Protection of Harassment Act. Anybody in the limelight is more likely to be the target of trolling.
"Celebrities have to be better at guarding their dignity and privacy.
"The more you share about your life, the more prone you are you to people saying stuff about you,” she added.
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