CNN Blocks Australians From Facebook Pages After Court Ruling

America-based news platform, Cable News Network (CNN), has restricted Australians from gaining access to its Facebook pages after the highest Australian court ruled that publishers can be held liable for defamation in public comment sections.

The court’s ruling means that if the CNN publishes a post without any defamatory content, but someone comments something defamatory under that post, the CNN could bear the brunt of it.

CNN took the decision after Facebook reportedly refused to help the company disable comments on their pages in that country.

Reuters reports that this makes CNN the first major news outlet to restrict its Facebook presence ever since the court’s ruling this month.

After backlash from defamation lawyers, however, the Australian Government is said to be currently reviewing the laws.

But in the meantime, it is likely that other global news organizations will follow CNN’s lead.

Reuters quoted a spokesperson for CNN as saying the news medium was disappointed in Facebook for refusing to grant their request to disable the comment section of their pages in Australia as it would have prevented the need to restrict Australians’ access entirely.

“We are disappointed that Facebook, once again, has failed to ensure its platform is a place for credible journalism and productive dialogue around current events among its users,” the spokesperson said.

A Facebook spokesperson, on the other hand, said that recent court decisions had shown the need for reform in Australian defamation law and the company looked forward to “greater clarity and certainty in this area.

“While it’s not our place to provide legal guidance to CNN, we have provided them with the latest information on tools we make available to help publishers manage comments”, the spokesperson said.