In brief
Comments that are strictly defamatory can still be so trivial that they do not merit an invasion of the authors’ privacy rights, the High Court has ruled. The court refused to allow the identities of seven people who had attacked directors of football club, Sheffield Wednesday, on a website message board to be revealed. Seven club directors had sought a court order to force Neil Hargreaves to identify 11 members who had posted allegedly defamatory comments on his site under pseudonyms. However, the court said it would not be right to make an order for the disclosure of the identities of users who have posted messages which are “barely defamatory or little more than abusive or likely to be understood as jokes”. It said the court must be careful not to unjustifiably invade an individual’s privacy.
