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ARTICLE · 31 JULY 2008

Facebook Firsht

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang
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Businessman Mathew Firsht has successfully sued an ex-school friend, Grant Raphael, both for libel and misuse of private information, after Mr Raphael created a false profile of Firsht on the hugely popular social networking website Facebook.

United KingdomMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Susan Barty
Susan Barty
Phillip Carnell
Phillip Carnell
Rebekah Mantle
Rebekah Mantle

Businessman Mathew Firsht has successfully sued an ex-school friend, Grant Raphael, both for libel and misuse of private information, after Mr Raphael created a false profile of Firsht on the hugely popular social networking website Facebook. Applause Store Productions, Firsht's company, also received damages in defamation. This case highlights how easy it is to create potentially libellous false pages about people on free-of-charge social networking sites, and could open the doors for further similar cases. It will no doubt be welcomed by companies defamed on social networking sites, blogs and review sites as it confirms their ability to recover damages as a result of such defamatory postings.

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