Richardson v Facebook [EWHC 3154 (QB) Business law Management Essay

Homework Assignment
Your Name
Course
Professor
UNIVERSITY
5TH November 2018
Case: Richardson v Facebook [EWHC 3154 (QB)
Background of the case
The assignment reviews the case of Richardson v Facebook which was heard and determined in an England court. The case is popularly referred to as Facebook ([2015] EWHC 3154 (QB)). In this case, Facebook UK (FBUK) was sued by Mr. Richardson for defamation on the grounds that his right to privacy had been grossly violated by the defendant. In its ruling, the high court dismissed the defamation charges stating that the defendant had no control over what users published on their profiles and hence the liability for defamation was misplaced. The court reasoned that even under the human rights act, the defendant (FBUK) lacked public authority over what was published by third parties. Although the claimant had sued FBUK for damages in lieu of a defamatory publication that was posted on Facebook profile, the profile had been created by an imposter and not Facebook. Therefore, while the claimant had the right to sue for defamation, Facebook was not the legitimate defendant but the publisher of the information.
Case Analysis
The decision in this legal dispute did in fact consider the rights of both the claimant and the defendant, even though certain fundamental liabilities of the defendant were overlooked. Although the defendant (FBUK) could not take absolute responsibility for the defamatory content, the liability of ensuring the legitimacy of user identity was their responsibility. In my view, this was a correct legal interpretation by the court given that it would be inappropriate for a platform provider to be sued for publication of defamatory content rather than the content publisher. Nevertheless, I also think that the defendant had the liability to produce the real person behind the fake FB accou...