We need to be more careful of our online social media activities. This is because in recent times, we’re starting to see the implications of what we do online affect our offline lives. More recently, over in Switzerland, the courts have ruled that it is possible that “liking” or sharing online posts that are deemed hateful or defamatory could be considered a crime.This is because it is believed that by “activating both ‘like’ and ‘share’ buttons in Facebook can improve visibility and thereby contribute to the dissemination within the social network of marked content.”
The ruling is based on a case in which the defendant had liked posts that accused an animal rights activist of being anti-Semitic and also being a neo-Nazi. The courts ordered the defendant to pay a fine for helping to spread dematatory content, which is based on the Zurich court’s ruling that we mentioned above.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen how “liking” a post could get someone in trouble. Several years ago, a US court had found that by “liking” a post, it was considered to be a violation of a restriction order. We’ve also seen how comments made online can also lead to people getting fired.