Internet Posts- Libel, Slander or Other?

Libel and slander are two forms of defamation, a definition of which is:

‘An act of communication that causes someone to be shamed, ridiculed, held in contempt, lowered in the estimation of the community, or to lose employment status or earnings or otherwise suffer a damaged reputation. Such defamation is couched in ‘defamatory language’. Libel and slander are defamation.’ Libel typically refers to defamation that is written or published, while slander is usually limited to oral defamation.

In an article just posted by the Nieman Journalism Lab, (link to the article below), there’s a scholarly discussion concerning modernizing libel and slander laws further to apply more appropriately to internet social media like Twitter.

Much of social media postings, while written, much more closely resemble the spoken word than the traditional written word. Certainly when libel was first formulated, the written word was found in books, manuscripts, and periodicals. Never even imagined was the modern capability for changing posts and ‘republishing’ so quickly and in such a fluid manner as is now possible on the web.

Careful people assume that anything they may post anywhere on the web will live for all time, so they exercise caution with what they do write or post. What about items that are ‘hacked in’ or posted in a person’s name? When negative things can be attributed to someone that can do harm to their career, reputation, or even end a life, there should be serious consequences in law for those who misuse the web to the detriment of others! Will the law be able to catch up and truly cover social media defamation? So far, there’s NOT an app for that!

Is Twitter writing, or is it speech? Why we need a new paradigm for our social media platforms