A man has been taken to court on charges of defamation for “liking” a series of Facebook posts attacking an animal rights activist.
The 45-year-old Swiss man, whose name has not been made public, is being pursued by Erwin Kessler, the subject of accusations on the social network.
According to TheLocal.ch, the accused hit the “like” button on eight separate posts aimed at Kessler, who is the president of Vereins gegen Tierfabriken, a vegan group.
The case is believed to be the first of its kind before a Swiss court and raises questions about the legal status of using the feedback tools on social media.
The posts in question reportedly contained a string of allegations against Kessler, claiming that he is anti-Semitic and a racist.
A report in the Austrian newspaper Tages-Anzeiger said the posts also alleged that Kessler has links to neo-Nazi groups and Holocaust deniers.
Prosecution lawyers intend to argue that by liking the posts, the accused spread them to more people – compounding the harm done by the allegations.
Kessler is reportedly suing at least eight other people for liking the posts.
The case is ongoing. It was due to be heard at a court in Zurich last week, but has been postponed.
Heat Street has asked Facebook to comment on what it believes the legal status of a “like” is but has yet to hear back.
Courts across the world are still working out how to interpret the implications of likes, retweets and various other “reaction” functions (for example, Facebook now lets you say you are “angry” or “shocked” by something).
In 2013, a US federal court ruled that “liking” a Facebook page (potentially different from liking a post) was a “substantive statement” and therefore subject to protection by the first amendment.
Tages-Anzeiger also mentioned a case where a Swiss journalist was in court for retweeting a post on Twitter but was subsequently let go without punishment.
In the UK, the late Conservative politician Lord McAlpine threatened to sue several people who retweeted erroneous claims that he was a paedophile. However, he ended up settling most of the cases out of court in exchange for donations to charity.
