Can You Sue Someone for Slander on Facebook?

“Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see.” For social media platforms like Facebook, that old proverb is truer than ever.

Millions of false statements are published on Facebook every day. Many of these false statements are completely harmless. Nobody is hurt when you falsely claim that you saw Bigfoot while hiking through the forest or that you are too sick to attend a boring family get-together. But sadly, not all of these false statements are harmless.

If somebody falsely claims that you committed a crime or that your business is poisoning customers, this claim can seriously harm your reputation or career.

You might be arrested or lose your livelihood as a result of those false statements. And even if you can prove your innocence, it could take significant time and money to do so, and your reputation might be permanently damaged.

If this has happened to you, you might be asking yourself this question: Can you sue someone for slander on Facebook?

The good news is that you can. Defamation of character lawyers from Morgan & Morgan may be able to help you get compensation for the harm you have suffered from false posts on Facebook. Contact us today to get a free evaluation of your slander case.

Before Filing a Lawsuit

Rather than asking, “Can you sue someone for slander on Facebook?” you should ask, “When can you sue someone for slander on Facebook?”

Slander refers to spoken defamation. For example, a defamatory statement streamed on Facebook Live could be slander. If the defamatory statement were written in a post, it would be libel.

Many of the laws surrounding slander and libel are similar; the main difference is whether the statement is verbal or published.

You can retain a lawyer the moment anyone makes a false statement about you. But not all false statements amount to slander. And even when a false statement is slanderous, a lawsuit might not be your best option.

Before filing a lawsuit, first, determine whether the false statement legally counts as defamation. To make this determination, speak to a Morgan and Morgan attorney. As part of our free evaluation of your case, we might ask the following questions:

• Was the Facebook post substantially false?
• Was the poster aware that the statement was false?
• Was the post a statement of fact rather than an opinion?
• Was the post made without your permission?
• Did the content of the false statement cause serious harm to you?
• Can the harm from that false statement be assigned a monetary value?

If the answer to all of these questions is “yes,” you are the victim of defamation and may be in a good position to file a lawsuit. However, even if you can file a lawsuit, it may be best to wait. Other steps may solve your problem more effectively without going through the court system.

Report the Defamatory Post and the User to Facebook

Facebook has robust reporting mechanisms that are supposed to protect users from slander and libel. Before doing anything else, you should report the defamatory post to Facebook using those reporting mechanisms. This is the easiest and fastest way to get the post deleted.

Suppose that Facebook refuses to delete the post even after you have provided evidence that it is defamatory. In that case, you may be able to pursue legal action against both Facebook and the user who made the post. Because of this risk, Facebook is likely to remove the post out of an abundance of caution.

Removing the false claim will likely minimize any harm to you. However, if a user reposts a defamatory statement after Facebook has removed it, this will strengthen your case if you do later bring a lawsuit.

Block the Poster

If somebody is making false statements about you, they are probably trying to provoke a reaction. They want to see you get angry or upset. By blocking the poster, you remove their ability to spectate. This won’t necessarily prevent them from continuing to slander you, but it should decrease the effect of that slander.

When you block someone, they are no longer able to read your posts or see your profile. This means the user has no clue what effect their defamation is having and can no longer gather information about you from your Facebook profile. Many slanderers will just stop once they are blocked.

However, before you block the user, you should collect and preserve all of the evidence you can. You might also want to recruit someone you trust to monitor their Facebook page to see whether the behavior stops or continues.

Send a Letter Demanding the Slanderer Cease Their Behavior

Your lawyer can write a formal demand letter requesting that the defamation end. This demand letter might be all it takes to end the slander. Once a lawyer gets involved, many people will get scared and stop inappropriate behavior. Even if the person doesn’t stop defaming you, the demand letter acts as a warning that you intend to file a lawsuit.

Evidence of Slander

Not only can you sue someone for slander on Facebook, but it is often easier than suing someone for other types of slander. Facebook posts create a record. And records can be used as evidence in a defamation trial.

There are several ways to preserve a Facebook post for evidence. You can and should take a screenshot of the slander or libel in case the person later tries to delete it. That screenshot will include time and date stamps that are part of the post and will show who made the post.

Additionally, once you file a lawsuit, you can request a record of the post from Facebook. Facebook keeps archives of all posts ever made, including all edits made to the post. That means even if the poster tries to edit or delete the post, Facebook can produce a copy of the original post and a record of changes to that post.

This is much more convenient than the evidence in most slander cases, where we are forced to rely on witness testimony regarding what was said and when it was said. The only thing you need to do is preserve as much evidence as you have access to as quickly as possible.