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Social Media Law In Australia—Some Parallels And Differences

Sat, June 11, 14:00 to 15:15, Fukuoka Hilton, Kaede

Abstract

Australian social media case law and policy shows divergence from decisions elsewhere. A series of unfair dismissal cases centred upon employee misuse of social media now require organisations to have sensible, updated and well communicated social media policies and that they train their staff in them. National security laws require telecommunications corporations and ISPs to retain metadata for two years so security agencies can have access for anti-terror investigations. A precedent has made publishers liable for the comments of third parties on social media platforms, and the High Court has made Google responsible for defamatory imputations in its search engine results. Australian judges have shown a more tolerant approach than the British to the use of social media by so-called ‘rogue jurors’. Only a handful of social media defamation cases have proceeded to judgment. This paper provides a brief outline of each in a case study approach.

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