An invaluable defamation defence for Irish discussion forums could be seen in the outcome of a case at the Dublin High Court, Mulvaney v Betfair. In that case, Betfair successfully claimed defence under an EU directive which protects hosting companies from defamation once they remove the content after they have been contacted and warned about it. Before now the people who run sites were seen in law as publishers.

TJ McIntyre, lecturer at the University College Dublin School of Law,  has more, where he warns:

“Consequently, although this decision will give some comfort to Irish chatroom operators, it shouldn’t be given too much weight and is unlikely to be the last word on the scope of the hosting defence in Ireland. We may have to wait for a more fully reasoned judgment (or guidance from the ECJ) before we can definitively say what rules apply to Irish sites which host user generated content”.

Note: Although the case uses the term ‘chatroom’ it was about a discussion forum, many people would see the two as different things.