The reform push followsa High Court ruling last year that media companies were legally responsible as “publishers” for third parties’ comments on their Facebook pages. The decision had implications for any operator of a social media account on which third parties could comment.
Under the proposal,social media page administrators would be able to rely on the defence of “innocent dissemination” to fend off lawsuits over third-party comments,but only if they set up complaints processes and took reasonable steps within seven days of a complaint to delete or prevent access to allegedly defamatory material. An earlier draft had specified a period of 14 days.
If the administrator opted to leave the material online after a complaint,they would “have the option of defending the matter using any other defences available to them”,a background paper released this year said,but this would be a costly approach.
NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman,who has led the reform campaign,said the changes would “substantially upgrade Australia’s uniform defamation laws”.
“Online technology means reputations can be irreparably damaged in a matter of keystrokes,” Speakman said.
“That’s why NSW has been leading this work and consulting on these reforms to strike a better balance between protecting reputations and promoting freedom of speech online.”
The laws would need to be passed by each jurisdiction to ensure the amendments were uniform across the country from January 1,2024. Western Australia and the Northern Territory have yet to pass a first tranche of reforms and there is no guarantee of uniformity.