Mallar Mitra, West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences
ABSTRACT
The dynamic nature of tort law and its interplay with recent technological developments requires an examination of defamation law in the online cyberspace. This paper aims to examine the current Indian position on the existing civil defamation law, and how it applies to the online sphere, especially with regard to social networking websites.
Before examining the evolution of tort law and its application to resolving questions of defamation that arise with changes in time and technological advancement, an understanding of civil defamation is a prerequisite. Thus, the first segment of this paper discusses the kinds of defamation, the various distinctions thereunder, and its ingredients and defences. The second segment examines the mushrooming phenomenon of defamation on social networking websites and the jurisdictional challenges arising therefrom. It discusses the concepts of innocent dissemination, republication, and intermediary liability, and analyses them from a cross-jurisprudential prism.
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