Libel Law and Defamation

The purpose of Libel Law is to protect individuals whether they be public officials, public figures, limited or vortex figure, or a private person from false statements made against them in a permanent written form.

There are 6 essential elements to a Libel suit.

1. Is there defamatory context? Is it libel per se?

a. There are 4 categories of defamatory context: illegal activity, professional incompetence, moral failing, and communicable disease

2. Is there identification? Can a 3rd party recognize the plaintiff in the accused defamatory text?

3. Is there publication? Was the text made public?

4. Is there fault? Did the defendant do something they shouldn’t have or fail to do something they should have?

a. Public officials, public figures, and limited or vortex figures must prove actual malice to prove fault. Did they have knowledge of falsity or a reckless disregard for truth?

b. Private persons must prove negligence to prove fault. Did they fail to take ordinary or reasonable care in their words?

5. Is there injury to reputation?

6. Is there falsity? Can what the defendant said be proven false?

Looking into the future it will be interesting to see how libel law and defamation suits take place in online forums such as social media.

There was a case in 2018 where Elon Musk was sued for defamation over what he said in a tweet. He indirectly called British diver Vernon Unsworth “pedo guy” which eventually led him to sue Musk saying that his tweet alleged him of pedophilia.

Musk ended up winning this case because:

1. Musk did not directly name Unsworth in the tweet, so they could not solidly prove identification.

2. Musk claimed that “pedo-guy” did not mean pedophile. It was just slang used on the internet to mean “creepy old man”. Therefore, his words could be categorized as hyperbole or name-calling which is opinion protected by the First Amendment.

This was one of the first high profile defamation cases that sprouted from social media and I am sure it will be used for reference in similar cases in the future.