High Court Orders Ldp Lawmaker To Pay Damages For 'liking' Defamatory Posts
The Tokyo High Court has reversed a lower court ruling and ordered a Diet lawmaker to pay damages for "liking" Twitter posts considered defamatory.
The court on Thursday ordered Sugita Mio of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to pay 550,000 yen, or about 3,670 dollars, to journalist Ito Shiori.
Ito has become one of the symbols of Japan's "Me too" movement after publicly accusing another journalist of raping her.
In filing the damages suit, Ito claimed that Sugita repeatedly "liked" a number of tweets slandering her in 2018. Ito says Sugita's act spread the defamatory tweets to her numerous followers.
The ruling said Sugita's endorsing of the slanderous tweets amounts to the infringement of the plaintiff's sense of honor.
It is believed to be the first time in Japan a court ruled that the act of liking a post amounts to defamation and awarded damages in a suit.
The presiding judge noted that Sugita has repeatedly criticized Ito, and it can be recognized that the lawmaker had an intention to harm Ito's honor by "liking" the posts.
The judge also said Sugita is a Diet member and her Twitter account has 110,000 followers. He said her act can have major repercussions.
The district court ruling earlier rejected Ito's claims. It said clicking "like" is a very abstract expression that may have many meanings. It said it is not illegal unless there are extraordinary circumstances.
After Thursday's ruling, Ito told reporters it is a breakthrough in that it recognized the defendant's intent to harm her honor. She said it was painful to see the number of "likes" on tweets slandering her increase rapidly.
Ito asked that social media users to stop and think about their intentions before "liking" a post, especially when the tweet is harmful to others.
Sugita's office said it will closely examine the ruling before deciding how to respond.
She now serves as parliamentary vice-minister of internal affairs and communications.