The defenses for online defamation are the same for ordinary defamation and they include truth, because that’s actually an element, falsity is an element of defamation. Opinion, if it’s pure opinion and not mixed opinion. Privilege. Privilege comes in basically two varieties, absolute and qualified. Absolute is a privilege, for instance, anything spoken during a judicial proceeding in court or testimony or in filed papers in court are absolute privilege. There are qualified privileges, including privileges, for instance when a former employer gives information about a former employee to a perspective employer. There’s a privilege called the fair report privilege when somebody is reporting about a judicial proceeding or government proceeding and that has to be full and fair reporting to give it that qualified privilege.
<== Back to FAQ Page