YOU HAVE TO LOVE TWITTER

I am trying to sue Twitter at the moment for a client and as part of my ‘research’, I reviewed a number of Tweets and this is my personal list of what I regard as the funniest tweets of 2012. 

• In order to catch a bus, first one must think like a bus
• There are four hundred billion birds in the world, 250,000 planes and one Superman. So in answer to your question – probably a bird.
• Due to an auto correct cock-up, my time machine only lets me travel into the furniture.
• The best thing about alcohol hand gel in hospital isn’t the hygiene, but that everyone walks around like they are hatching a dastardly plan.
• I had a crazy dream that I weighed less than a thousandth of a gram. I was, like, Omg!
• I just looked in the mirror and thought, who is that old man staring back at me? Then I realised it’s not a mirror, it’s a fish fingers box.
• I cannot speak highly enough of helium.
• Parents. Cheer up your sick child by frothing their medicine. Hey presto – Calpolccino.

Kevin Brophy,
Brophy Solcitors

HOW TO DEFAME SOMEONE AND GET AWAY WITH IT?

In recent blogs I referred to the fact that it is relatively easy these days to seriously attempt to destroy a person’s reputation and get away with it. What you do is you post some utterly untrue and scurrilous remarks on Facebook or on TripAdvisor or on Twitter and if possible you hide your identity. If the injured party tries to chase any of these social media sites, they will be faced with an impenetrable wall of legal protections, which will make it extremely difficult to succeed in an action against any of these social media sites. 

Here is something else you can do if you feel like defaming somebody a little closer to home. 

The Irish Times website contains a facility that allows you to comment on articles appearing in their newspaper. The website says that these comments are carefully monitored and if they are in any way objectionable, they can be removed without notice. Unfortunately however these are just words and it doesn't happen. I have acted for injured parties who have been seriously defamed by members of the public who make up fictitious names and then say the most outrageous things on these comment pages. You can pursue the Irish Times or any other newspaper that has comment facilities like this but this is always after the event and in my experience, most clients who are defamed in this manner would rather not be defamed in the first place rather than have to pursue a newspaper or anybody else. The big problem in these cases always is that I can make up an entirely fictitious name, defame whoever I like on one of these comment sites and I get away scot-free. 

That’s the bad news, here is the good news. At least you have a substantial organisation like the Irish Times or Independent Newspapers who you can pursue and obtain damages from. You can also press these bodies to reveal the identity of the person who is making the comments. As we all know, you can hide on the internet, but not forever. On paper, it might be very difficult to pursue these individuals, who hide under a cloak of anonymity but if a solicitor is determined enough and has the contacts and knowledge necessary to uncover this cloak of anonymity, then the person making these defamatory comments can be tracked down and orders can be obtained.

Kevin Brophy

Brophy Solicitors

Published and you are Damned - Defamation on Social Media

Image from Social Media: Beyond Pokes and Likes


If you are defamed in the Irish Times, you will receive a healthy sum by way of compensation if your reputation has been damaged and you succeed with your claim. If you are defamed on Facebook or Twitter or TripAdvisor then it is an entirely different story.

Perhaps the biggest growth area on my side of the practice at the moment relates to defamation in social media. If I call you a thief in a letter to the Irish Times and the letter was published, you can sue the Irish Times and you will probably be compensated. If I call you a thief on Facebook or Twitter, you cannot sue Facebook or Twitter. There is an exception to this rule. If I call on Facebook or Twitter to remove the offending defamatory comments and they fail to do so, then you may be able to sue them but believe me, it is utterly tortuous and inevitably clients just run out of patience, if not money, trying to get even a response from any of these gigantic social media organisations.

At the moment I am acting for a client who has been defamed in a national newspaper but the newspaper is relying on comments made on TripAdvisor to justify the comments made in their article. In the recent past I had a client who was terribly defamed on Twitter and eventually I was able to get the offending comments removed, but not without a tortuous battle.

Legislation has been introduced to protect social media at the expense of the private individual. If anybody is ever defamed on Facebook or Twitter or any other form of social media, I would urge them to vigorously go after the organisation because the only thing that will make them act in a more responsible manner is if they are pursued by members of the public and if it eventually costs them money. Profit is their bottom line and if members of the public can successfully sue social media for damage to their reputation, the position will change very rapidly.


Kevin Brophy
Brophy Solicitors