OK, now that's just daft.
A court in Switzerland has fined a man for "liking" comments deemed to be defamatory that were posted on Facebook. The landmark case involved comments made about Erwin Kessler, the head of an animal protection group. He was accused of being anti-Semitic and racist, media reports say.
The Zurich district court said the defendant "clearly endorsed the unseemly content and made it his own" by liking comments. The 45-year-old man liked six comments, according to Swiss newspaper Le Temps.
The Zurich court ruled that the defendant had not been able to prove that the comments he liked were truthful. It also said that the action of "liking" the comments "made them accessibly to a large number of people", and were thus an "affront to [Kessler's] honour". He was given a conditional fine of 4,000 Swiss francs (£3,200; $4,100), according to AFP. The verdict can be appealed against.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40097792
Hmmm, am I going to get in trouble for plussing this post?
ReplyDeleteRuling is detriment to freedom of expression
ReplyDeleteAfraid to give you a plus 1 on this one. Might want to travel to Switzerland someday.
ReplyDelete