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ARTICLE · 16 FEBRUARY 2014

New UK Web Defamation Rules For User Content: What Canadian Website Operators Need To Know

McCarthy Tétrault
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The UK Defamation Act 2013 (the "Act") came into effect on January 1, 2014. This Act includes a variety of reforms to the UK law of defamation, including codification of the defence of "Publication on a matter of public interest"; however, for Canadian website operators, the most important change is likely to be a new defence against operator liability for third-party defamatory content.

CanadaMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Keith Rose
Keith Rose
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The UK Defamation Act 2013 (the "Act") came into effect on January 1, 2014.  This Act includes a variety of reforms to the UK law of defamation, including codification of the defence of "Publication on a matter of public interest"; however, for Canadian website operators, the most important change is likely to be a new defence against operator liability for third-party defamatory content.

Under section 5 of the Act, website operators now have a complete defence against liability in the UK for defamatory content posted by third parties, provided that the complainant is able to identify the poster.  Under subsection 5(4), this means that the complainant must have sufficient information to be able to bring court proceedings against the poster.

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