Australia: High Court decision regarding potential defamation liability of social media platforms

On 8 September 2021, the High Court of Australia has found that media companies can potentially be held liable as publishers of defamatory comments on websites and social media platforms. The High Court affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal of New South Wales and rejected the news companies' contentions that they should not be classed as publishers due to lack of intent to post such comments. Specifically, hosts of social media pages can face defamation liability for third-party comments even if those comments have not yet been discovered by the hosts.