Social Media

A judge has awarded $875,000 in damages in a defamation case brought by Nationals MP Dr Anne Webster against a conspiracy theorist for a series of social media posts linking the politician and her husband to a child sex ring.

Melbourne businessman Tolga Kumova has filed defamation proceedings against the operator of the Stock Swarmi Twitter account, a case that could lay down the legal groundwork for cyberbullying claims.

The Greens Party is urging the Morrison Government to include the ABC and SBS in its mandatory media bargaining code, saying the plan to make Google and Facebook pay for news content was "incomplete" without protections for the public broadcasters.

Facebook's argument that it can't be sued by the privacy commissioner in Australia has fallen flat, with a judge rejecting the social media giant's application to dismiss enforcement action brought in March over the disclosure of users' personal data.

Media outlets facing liability for allegedly defamatory remarks left under news articles they posted on Facebook are taking their case to the High Court, after a court of appeal found the companies were publishers of the third-party comments.

A  judge has slammed the pleadings in a $1 billion class action against Facebook and Google over cryptocurrency ad bans as "vague and general" and refused to let the matter progress until a better case is brought.

The High Court has rejected an appeal challenging a ruling that found a failed political candidate liable for defamatory responses made by readers of two Facebook posts he published that labelled a South Australian businessman greedy and selfish, but the court has left the door open to weigh in on the issue of secondary publication of social media comments.

In what is believed to be a first in Australia, a judge hearing a defamation case between two Sydney lawyers has found that an emoji is capable of carrying a defamatory imputation.

Search engine giant Google has fired off another round of criticism of the Government's proposed media bargaining code, calling it "unworkable" and "extremely one-sided and unfair".

Counselling app Lyf is suing smartphone maker Mintt for allegedly infringing on a trade mark it owns for the universal OK hand gesture, saying Mintt's logo is substantially identical to Lyf's registered mark.