The Irish Courts are increasingly ordering social media
companies and other online platforms to disclose the identity of
online wrongdoers. While this new trend was initially largely
confined to seeking the removal of defamatory material, companies
are now resorting to the courts to tackle other online wrongdoing
which might adversely affect their business.
Social media and the internet offer unprecedented opportunities
for anonymous mass communications. This includes not only content
posted by "keyboard warriors", who seek to take advantage
of that anonymity by making defamatory comments online but also
others who seek to use the internet for unlawful ends. Where this
activity is hosted by social media or other online platforms, the
host companies can find themselves in an unenviable position. They
are unable, from a practical perspective, to monitor the billions
of messages published on a daily basis but can become caught in the
middle of third party disputes as the
