SC Civil Cassation Court Explained How to Identify the Person Who Disseminated False Information on the Internet

The court of appeal upheld the decision of the court of first instance, which ruled that the information disseminated by the defendant on the social network "Facebook" was unreliable and degrading to the honor, dignity and business reputation of the plaintiffs.

The court decisions were motivated by the fact that the information disseminated in the social network by a user under a certain name was unreliable and violated the non-property rights, honor, dignity and business reputation of the plaintiffs. This information was not an evaluative judgment within the meaning of part 2 of Art. 30 of the Law of Ukraine "On Information". The courts indicated that it was the defendant who had spread the false information.

The Supreme Court composed of the panel of judges of the Civil Cassation Court overturned the previous judgments, referred the case for a new consideration to the court of appeal, making the following legal conclusions.

The defendants in the case for the protection of dignity, honor or business reputation are a natural or legal person who disseminated false information, as well as the author of this information.

The proper defendant in case of dissemination of disputed information on the Internet is the author of the relevant information and the owner of the website, whose identities must be established and indicated by the plaintiff in the statement of claim.

Regarding the determination of the proper defendant in the case of dissemination of information on the Internet, which the plaintiffs ask to refute, there is an established case law of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, of the Supreme Court including on the recording (collection, provision) of evidence, its admissibility and reliability, expertise in the field of telecommunication systems, research of the web pages content, evaluation of electronic evidence (copies), etc.

The Civil Cassation Court within the Supreme Court in its rulings has repeatedly provided the courts with information and legal position on the identification of website owners (legal entities and individuals) and hosting service providers.

The main argument of the appeal was that the defendant had no relation to the user of the social network "Facebook" under the false name indicated by the plaintiffs, and that he had not disseminated information about the plaintiffs. The court of appeal did not examine the said matter.

According to the established case law of the European Court of Human Rights, the reasons underlying these decisions should be appropriately stated in the judgments. At the same time, the ECtHR emphasizes several objectives in the reasoning of judicial decisions: to demonstrate and prove, first of all, to the parties that the court actually heard their positions rather than ignored them; to provide the parties with an opportunity to decide whether to appeal the judgment and ensure an effective appellate review of the case; public scrutiny of justice.

The contested judgment of the court of appeal does not meet the criterion of reasonableness of the judgment.

The court of appeal, in violation of Articles 264, 367, 374, 382 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine, unreasonably did not take into account the circumstances and evidence provided by the defendant and did not indicate which evidence submitted by the plaintiffs refuted those circumstances; it failed to establish the circumstances that were important for the proper settlement of the case, namely, that the information that the plaintiffs intended to refute had been disseminated by the defendant and that the user's page on the social network "Facebook" under the false name indicated by the plaintiffs belonged to the defendant.

Resolution of the Supreme Court of December 14, 2022 in case No. 454/2743/19 (proceedings No. 61-8616св22) - https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/107938372.

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