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ARTICLE · 24 SEPTEMBER 2013

Part 1: New Defence For Website Operators Against Liability For Defamatory User Generated Content

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The Ministry of Justice has recently published draft regulations for England and Wales which set out how a new defence for website operators against liability for defamatory user generated content will work in practice.

United KingdomMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Rhys Griffiths
Rhys Griffiths

Introduction

The Ministry of Justice has recently published draft regulations (the "Regulations") for England and Wales which set out how a new defence for website operators against liability for defamatory user generated content will work in practice.  This is in addition to those defences currently available and which form the basis of the well-known "notice and take-down" procedure used by many websites.

This article summarises how the Regulations (as supplemented by the Defamation Act 2013) will work and what website operators must do to benefit from the new defence.  This will be followed by an article which summarises the practical advantages and disadvantages of the new defence and what difference it will actually make to the position of website operators.

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