Watch what you say on Facebook

Watch what you are saying on Facebook. The South Gauteng High Court, in a first for SA, has set a new legal precedent after granting a South African Facebook user an interdict preventing a friend from posting about his personal life on the social media network after she defamed him on the site.

The case was brought before the court after the Facebook user posted a status update about a party he attended. In response to the comment, the user took the matter to court, claiming that the comment defamed him.

In his application, the Facebook user sought to block the friend from making any more posts about him on social media – as well as an order that she be arrested for 30 days should she fail to comply.

“If one wants to stop wrongdoing, it is best to act against the wrongdoers themselves,” .Judge Willis  said after not finding evidence that Facebook would comply with a request to take the offending comment down. He said that it’s better to tackle users, rather than Facebook itself, in matters of privacy. (Met erkenning aan Quinton Bronkhorst, BusinessTech)