A UK businessman has won a libel case and $44,000 in damages at London's High Court after false allegations were made about him on Facebook.
Mathew Firsht sued a former friend for creating a bogus profile on the site that featured personal information about him and untrue claims about his sexual orientation.
Firsht said Grant Raphael had created the profile on Facebook under the heading "Has Mathew Firsht lied to you?"
The Facebook profile falsely claimed that Firsht was a member of other groups, including "Gay in the WoodBorehamwood" and "Gay Jews in London." The profile was on the site for 16 days until it was discovered by Firsht's brother and taken down.
Raphael maintained that the profile was created on a computer at his home without his knowledge by someone who was at a party there.
Deputy Judge Richard Parkes awarded Firsht $30,000 for his television company Applause Store Productions and $10,00 for libel damages. He also received $4,000 for breach of privacy.
The two former friends attended school together but had a disagreement over a business dispute about six years ago.
Firsht claimed Raphael held a grudge against him and created the fake Facebook profile to cause him anxiety and embarrassment.
"He is plainly a businessman of single-minded drive and dedication, and he did not strike me as being the kind of man to waste valuable time on ancient disputes," the judge said of Firsht.
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Libel suit
I thought this was a business board. Sister suing sister for myspage page? Sounds like a Jerry Springer message board. What remedies do people suggest for positive pr?
British guy wins lawsuit over fake facebook page
I am absolutely delighted over this man's win! In 2006 I had a similar incident happen to me! My older estranged sister went into my MY SPACE and created a fake page using photos of me she had stolen from my personal website. She then claimed I was a woman seeking other women for relationships and she wrote horrific blogs about my business, claiming I was out ripping people off.
I was not even aware of this page being on the internet until a woman contacted me about the page wanting information about me. I didn't know what she was talking about as I only have a music my space page and it clearly says I'm married and straight! She directed me to the page and to my utter horror, it had been up and available on the internet for some time! I was stunned.
I knew who the culprit was behind the fake myspace page because I had been having problems with my estranged sister going into hundreds of dog forums writing lie after lie about me, my family and my business. My sister had claimed she had a nervous breakdown in 2006 but that did not excuse her behaviour at trying to destroy my reputation, my business and me as a person over the internet with her lies and creating such horrific postings about me.
This type of behaviour also caused a teenager to commit suicide from a fake myspace page. I am simply delighted that this British guy was able to get back at being wronged by a supposed "friend". This sort of stuff destroys reputations and businesses and it must be stopped! My sister is very lucky that I did not go after her and personally sue her for the damage she caused to my business. Had I not lived in another state and lived closer to her I would have sued her for everything she owned. Living out of state makes it difficult to sue others because you have to go where THEY live! But if I ever catch her doing something like that again, she WILL FACE a lawsuit because I am still struggling to this day to gain my reputation back from the damage she had caused in 2006.
Difficult to prove?
I guess this has to be about as difficult to prove as the music downloads issue. If you can retrieve a computer MAC addy that's one thing, but more usually all you'd get is an IP address which means nothing - could be going through a proxy, could be an open wireless connection. None the less pretty dumb to do it from your own PC, especially when you know the person that you're targetting personally.
Fantastic defamation case!
Fantastic defamation case! This should carry over to blogs as well. Wonder who the attorney is
it does seem strange that
he was awarded the money. There doesn't seem to be any real proof that it was his former friend?. Without hard evidence it seems strange such a high amount was awarded.
"there doesn't seem to be
"there doesn't seem to be any real proof" - what, you expected to see the outline of the entire court proceedings in the 3 paragraphs above? It's a good thing the judge didn't make his decision based on this article...
Face-Schmuk
Firsht claimed! Its all claims! Is there actually any proof that this guy didnt join these facebook groups himself?!?!?
Yes - court cases are
Yes - court cases are generally based on "claims" that one party makes, against another party. Then the validity of those claims is laid out in court, and those claims are deemed to be either true or untrue.
The word "claim" does not denote either truth or untruth.
Tracking Facebook
Facebook can track the IP address of the posting back to the Mac address of the computer from which the post originated. That's why the defendant is claiming "somebody else did it during a party at my house". That's a lame excuse, IMHO. Who lets people have unfettered access to their computer during a party, or any other time, for that matter? I'm glad he got fined.
nice
I am curios to see how this will set standards for other cases that might come in the future.
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