High Court awards damages in Facebook privacy and libel claim

In a successful claim for defamation and misuse of private information arising from a malicious profile of the claimant which the defendant had posted on the Facebook social-networking website, the High Court has awarded a total of £22,000 in damages to the claimant and his company. The evidence went no further than showing that five people had accessed the profile, but the judge said that it was not only possible, but probable that many others had also seen it, and this influenced the quantum of the award. The case provides a useful illustration of the type of information that can be obtained from a website operator as to the nature and timing of activity conducted on its site from particular IP (internet protocol) addresses, and how this can be used in evidence. Case: Applause Store Productions Limited and Mathew Firsht v Grant Raphael, 24 July 2008.