The use of social means to engage in defamation is nothing new.
Indeed, defamation requires the very social element of publication.
Social media - Facebook pages or posts, tweets, blogs and online
comments - merely make defamation easier and more pervasive.
Canadian courts have struggled to balance the interests of free
speech with the interests of individuals who wish to challenge and
find redress for defamatory statements. A recent Ontario case has
framed the issue as follows:
"There are few things more cowardly and insidious than an
anonymous blogger who posts spiteful and defamatory comments about
reputable member of the public and then hides behind the electronic
curtain provided by the Internet. The Defendant confuses freedom of
speech with freedom of defamation. There are, undoubtedly,
legitimate anonymous Internet posts: persons critical of autocratic
or repressive regimes, for example, or legitimate whistleblowers.
The Defendant is not one of those
