Twitter facebook defamation: a common cocktail

diffamation

Que ce soit sur twitter ou sur facebook, les internautes se sentent parfois intouchables, retranchés derrière l’anonymat de leur clavier;
Aussi, n’est il pas rare que des injures, des diffamations, des insultes y soient proférées.

If you are the victim, here are the steps to take:

The Law on the Freedom of the Press of 29 July 1881 is not only applicable to paper communication but also to communication on the Internet, including blogs and social networks.
The LCEN law of 21 June 2004 on confidence in the digital economy makes publications on the Internet subject to the 1881 press law.

Because of its hyper-reactive nature and its limit of 140 signs, twitter is particularly conducive to angry, unreflective and sometimes defamatory or insulting messages.
We won't go into the difference between insult and defamation here, but be aware that you can't act on both insult and defamation at the same time: you'll have to choose

Whether it's an insult or defamation, your e-reputation is at stake. It is therefore not only a matter of having your damage acknowledged and compensated, but also of putting an end to the disorder.

Also, you'll have to preserve the evidence while trying to erase it.

To preserve the evidence, a simple screenshot is not enough: indeed, nothing is easier than to manipulate an image like this for example :

Seul le constat d’huissier vous permet d’apporter la preuve irréfutable des propos qui sont tenus. Lors de ce constat, l’huissier devra respecter un protocole précis (pour notre part, nous respectons la norme AFNOR Z67-147 reconnue par les tribunaux.

It will also have to give the environment of the publication: on Facebook, are the comments made in a private setting, in a public setting? On tweeter, has the tweet been commented on, liked, retweeted?

L’ensemble de ces éléments « annexes » aux constatations permettra d’évaluer votre préjudice liée à l’injure ou à la diffamation twitter Facebook.

Internet being particularly changing, it is advisable to find a reactive judicial officer who will be able to carry out a statement of facts in urgency.

Once this is done, you will have to make sure that the contentious message disappears. To do this, we advise you to take the following steps:

Tout d’abord, vous pouvez demander bien évidemment à son auteur de le retirer. Cette démarche peut prêter à sourire, mais souvent la demande n’a même pas été faite, ni sur le réseau social, ni en message privé, ni par lettre d’avocat. Mais vous pouvez surtout signaler la publication à twitter ou à Facebook grâce aux boutons qui sont mis à votre disposition. Les modérateurs des réseaux sociaux vérifieront, dans un délai variable, la pertinence de votre demande et bloquera, ou non, le message voire son auteur.

Par la suite, puisque le délai de prescription est de trois mois (depuis 2004, ce délai a été allongé à un an en ce qui concerne la diffamation commise envers une personne ou un groupe de personnes à raison de leur origine ou de leur appartenance ou de leur non-appartenance à une ethnie, une nation, une race ou une religion déterminée : loi Perben II), il convient d’agir vite.

We therefore advise you to contact a lawyer who specialises in this area. You can find a list of such lawyers here.

The latter will act either with the public prosecutor, by filing a "simple" criminal complaint on the basis of the provisions of the press law, or by initiating a criminal investigation by referring the matter to the Dean of the examining magistrates by means of a complaint with a claim for damages, on the basis of the provisions of the press law, but you can also have the interested parties summoned directly before the criminal court by means of a direct summons.