As a lawyer who deals with defamation regularly, I am often reminded that one’s life experience is assaulted when one person violates another’s right to human dignity on a public platform. That is what happened to Shaun Leyland. In an abuse of their right to freedom of expression, somebody used Facebook to defame him. They then plastered allegations of sexual abuse onto a Parys Gazette masthead. With what appears to be an intellectual property violation, they sought to add to the sting of their tale, alleging that he had targeted children.
What social media users may not realise, is that South Africa’s laws on online conduct have been bolstered over the last few years. Courts can now order the police to track down the wrongdoer(s), whereafter they may be criminally prosecuted or held accountable in civil court.

Below are some key questions asked by social media abuse victims.

• What do I do if someone is harassing or falsely accusing me via a fake profile?
Step one is to collect evidence of the harassment (note that false accusations made via social media, constitute as harassment in terms of applicable law). In terms of the Protection from Harassment Act, victims can ask the applicable magistrate’s court to order that SAPS investigate who the person behind the harassment is, and to investigate their acts criminally. The process is free and entails a visit to your local court. There, victims fill out the Department of Justice’s application for a protection order. A magistrate will consider whether the victim is indeed being harassed and may order the police to confirm the identity of the harasser. An order can also be sought to stop the harassment.

• Can I report the person badmouthing me to the police?
Yes, you may institute a criminal case of crimen injuria if your subjective sense of dignity has been negatively affected. This process entails going to your nearest police station with evidence of the harassment. In the charge office, they will take down your statement before issuing you with a case number.
Once the crimen injuria investigation is complete, the wrongdoer may be charged criminally.

• What are my options in terms of civil law?
Civil cases include court cases where one person accuses another of wrongdoing and claims compensation. Defamation is the unlawful and unintentional (or, in the case of the media, negligent) publication of a statement that injures another’s reputation.

Those who spread injurious falsehoods about others, may be found liable for defamation and ordered to compensate their victims financially.
Important to note is that when a defamatory post is shared, each and every person sharing it may be as liable as the creator of the defamatory content.
• I am a social media group administrator.  Will I get in trouble for what is posted on the group I manage?

The role of group administrators in defamatory posts is nuanced. While administrators are not automatically liable for every post made within their group, they may be held accountable if they are aware of the defamatory content and fail to address it properly.
• The same applies to untrue information: If you are a group admin and you know that falsities have been posted onto your group but fail to address it, you will be in the wrong.
This is why group policies are crucial. If you are the administrator of, for example, a Facebook or WhatsApp group, you must have rules indicating the types of behaviour that will not be tolerated on the group. This usually includes human rights violations such as insults, bullying, hate speech and defamation.
• Which steps should I take to verify whether content is accurate, before posting it?
Misinformation and disinformation (fake news) is a phenomenon that skews public dialogue by distributing untruths. When receiving information, social media users should consider it critically before deciding to share it. A quick Google search is a good start – if credible news organisations have made the information available, it should be reliable.
This is because reliable media entities that subscribe to the Press Code of South Africa have bound themselves to investigating and verifying allegations prior to publishing.

The following pre-posting checklist was inspired by the Constitutional Court’s judgment in the case of National Media Limited and Others v Bogoshi (1998). While it serves as a go-to for media professionals, regular South Africans can also use it to ensure that they do not post or repeat unlawful defamatory content:
1. Is the information true?
2. Is it in the public interest?
3. Have I confirmed the information first-hand or from well-informed or reliable sources?
4. Before commenting on something, ask: Is my comment my honest opinion on matters of public interest, and is my comment without malice?
5. If my post is accusing someone of something, have I asked them for their response to the allegations?

The moral of the story is that regular South Africans now have the publishing abilities that were once exclusive to the media. With great risk, comes great responsibility and it is up to each of us to
ensure that we use social media platforms for positive, healthy social exchanges, and in a way ive, healthy social exchanges, and in a way that does not unfairly prejudice others.