© Reuters
CNN stopped posting to Facebook in Australia on Thursday. The US news channel is doing this after a court ruled that press groups are responsible for offensive comments linked to its articles on the social networking site. Australian users who open CNN’s Facebook page on Thursday will see a message that their content is now restricted.
GVSource: Belgian
The Australian High Court in early September upheld the court’s decision, which held that the media are liable for comments made by social media users on their posts. Thus the media can also be sued under Australia’s stringent defamation laws.
CNN, Wednesday, asked Facebook to help the media deactivate comments on posts on the platform, but Facebook “decided not to do so.” “We are disappointed that Facebook has once again failed to make its platform a trusted place for journalism and productive exchanges between users on current affairs,” a CNN spokesperson said in a press release on the website.
Facebook announced in March that media outlets can disable comments for certain posts, but it has not yet been able to do so for entire pages. In a press release, Facebook said it has passed on all information to CNN about the tools the media can use to manage comments.
Dylan Fuller, a young Aboriginal in prison, went to court believing that journalists from the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian newspapers and Sky News were responsible for defamatory comments about him on Facebook.
