- Have you ever gotten a
hurtful comment on YouTube,
Instagram, or Facebook?
No? Okay, then we're done here.
But seriously, some comments
are downright harmful.
They hurt our reputation.
And the question I'm
here to answer today is
can you take legal action against someone
who post a harmful social media comment?
(upbeat music)
Hey, Creator, I'm Ian Corzine,
your social media lawyer.
The question for today is
can you take legal action
for a harmful post?
We begin our analysis with understanding
that mean-spirited
comments, angry comments,
those are actually allowed on
the social media platforms.
YouTube expressly allows
it in its terms of service
and under the community guidelines.
You know, they don't want a
lot of mean-spirited talk,
but they do allow it.
They believe that it's
part of your free speech
on the internet type right.
So if mean spirited and angry
comments are actually allowed,
not only legally, but also on
the social media platforms,
what is not allowed?
What is not allowed,
what crosses the line is defamation.
Defamatory comments.
Those are false statements
using words that cause damage
to a person's reputation or property.
There are two main elements for defamation
that is a false statement
and actual damage.
So in order to prove
a case for defamation,
in order to bring a
lawsuit against someone
who has said a hateful or
harmful comment against you,
you must prove that that
statement was actually false
and that it caused actual damage to you.
How do you do that?
You have to be able to have evidence.
Written evidence or digital
evidence that you lost money
or your reputation was
substantially damaged
as a result of their false statement.
The classic case of
defamation and social media
involved Nicholas Sandmann.
That was the case that
took place last year.
He was the teenager who was accused
by the various media outlets
of instigating a confrontation
with a Native American in Washington, DC.
Basically, the media outlets,
they were accused of setting
up the video and the audio
so it made it look like Nicholas Sandmann
was actually instigating a conflict.
It turned out, when more
videotape was available,
that he actually didn't
instigate the conflict.
He just kind of stood there.
Well, he brought a lawsuit for defamation
against multiple media outlets,
including the Washington Post.
He sued the Washington Post
for about $250 million.
The case was not resolved with a judgment
by the court or a jury.
It was resolved with a settlement,
and we'll never know how much
he settled for, but he won.
He actually was able to
get a monetary settlement
out of the Washington Post
because he was able to prove
that they made false statements
that caused him actual
damage to his reputation.
And that is, again, the
classic case of defamation.
So if you have a social media commenter
who's making false statements
that's really causing harm
or damage to your reputation,
you can bring a lawsuit for
defamation against them.
But before you go off and hire an attorney
to sue someone who put a hateful comment
on your social media post,
I have some considerations for you.
The first one is proof.
In order to bring a
successful defamation case,
you have to have adequate proof,
and I'll give you an example.
Let's say someone accused
you in a social media comment
of abusing your children,
and as a result,
you lost your job as a daycare provider.
You no longer could work
for a daycare provider
because they saw the social media post,
they believed it,
and then they fired you.
Well, adequate proof of your damages
would be your paycheck stubs
which show how much money you were making
before the comment.
And then you'd allege that
if that comment had never been made
that you would have
continued to make that money
and you would have made it
for the foreseeable future.
That is a good example of
having adequate evidence
of damages to bring a defamation case
against a social media comment poster.
And another consideration is money.
Probably the best way to be successful
in a defamation lawsuit
is to hire an attorney
to bring that case.
Now, attorneys cost a lot of money.
They usually charge by the hour,
and so you have to have a lot of money
to be able to bring a defamation case.
So when someone makes a social
media comment that's hateful
that you believe caused damage,
that damage has gotta be
in the thousands of dollars
in order to warrant you
spending thousands of dollars
with an attorney.
If it's a comment that merely,
you know, impeaches your credibility,
makes you look not believable,
you don't have much damages to show,
then at that point in time,
you need to consider
whether or not it's worth it
to spend five, $10,000 on an attorney
to bring a defamation case.
So that's another main consideration
before you go about wanting to sue
a social media comment poster.
You really gotta have adequate
proof of actual damage,
and you have to be able to prove that
that statement is false,
and you have to have
the money to back it up
so you could hire an adequate attorney
to represent you in that case.
But I really don't wanna dissuade you
from bringing a defamation lawsuit
if someone commented on one
of your social media posts
and it was so hateful
and so harmful to your reputation
that you suffered severe damages.
You have an absolute right
to bring a civil action
against that person
if they're making false statements
and really hurting you by them.
Defamation lawsuits are
becoming increasingly popular.
We're seeing more and more
lawsuits filed in the courts
relating to defamation,
and I think it's because
of this environment
that we live in called cancel culture.
If you haven't heard this term
and you wanna learn more,
and I'm gonna teach you
how to avoid the harmful
effects of cancel culture,
you should watch my video right there.
And as always, as you watch,
I'm gonna be at IanCorzine.com
to answer any social media
law question you have.
(upbeat music)
