Defamation on Social Media

Abstract

There is no doubt that social media have become a very important part of many people’s everyday life. The consequences of their usage is an increased engagement in defamation, most likely due to the aspect of anonymity present in the online environment. Such cross-border (or more precisely border-less) defamation raises difficult challenges in terms of jurisdiction and applicable law. These challenges, which will be analysed in more detail in the article, remain unresolved up until today. Moreover, negative effects occur not only within private international law itself, but status quo significantly influences the exercise of basic human rights, too. Besides analysing the existing EU legal framework and applicable case-law, the article also looks into the possible alternatives.