03/02/2020 2016 BCSC 686 Pritchard v. Van Nes Republication occurs where the person to whom the words were originally published communicates them to someone else. The general rule is that a person is responsible only for his or her own defamatory publications, and not for their repetition by others. There is no liability for a republication by a third person that the defendant neither authorized nor intended to be made. There is no liability upon the original publisher of the libel when the repetition is the voluntary act of a free agent, over whom the original publisher had no control and for whose acts he is not responsible … However, there are several exceptions to this rule. The defendant may intend or authorize another to publish a defamatory communication on his or her behalf. Secondly, a defendant may publish it to someone who is under some moral, legal or social duty to repeat the information to another person. Thirdly, a defendant may be liable if the repetition was the natural and probable result of his or her publication. These rules apply only where the information repeated is the same or substantially the same so that the sum and substance of the original charge remains. Once the requirements have been satisfied, the plaintiff is entitled to recover damages from the defendant both for the original publication and for the republication by the person to whom it was initially published. [Emphasis added; citation omitted.] [79] There are two forms of republication in the present case: republication within Facebook, and republication through email, specifically Mr. Parks’ email to the school principal Mr. Horton. [80] Mr. Pritchard provided some evidence to the court, based on his personal knowledge, as to the operation of Facebook. No expert evidence was tendered. In my view, social media platforms and applications, Facebook in particular, are so ubiquitous that the court is able to take judicial notice of some aspects of their nature and operation. [81] First, it is uncontroversial that the distribution of information – comments, photographs, videos, links to items of interest – amongst users is fundamental to the use of a social media platform such as Facebook. [82] Second, Facebook in particular facilitates such distribution through its structure or architecture. An individual user’s posts to their own page are automatically shared with “friends” who are linked to the user’s page. As “friends” react by commenting, the “friends”’ comments may be spread automatically to “friends of friends”. Such comments are solicited implicitly through the medium’s tools that allow “Comment” on a post and “Reply” to a comment (not to mention soliciting endorsement through use of the “Like” button). Further distribution may take place through the “Share” function. This is intended only as a generic description; no detailed evidence was presented as to the specific features in operation on Facebook at the time of this incident. Nevertheless, it appears from the evidence that these basic features all played a role in the dissemination of Ms. Van Nes’ defamatory remarks. [83] In my view the nature of Facebook as a social media platform and its structure mean that anyone posting remarks to a page must appreciate that some degree of dissemination at least, and possibly widespread dissemination, may follow. This is particularly true in the case of the defendant, who had no privacy settings in place and who had more than 2,000 “friends”. The defendant must be taken to have implicitly authorized the republication of her posts. There is evidence from which widespread dissemination of the defamation through republication may be inferred. There is actual evidence of the republication at least to Ms. Regnier, who learned of the posts through the comments posted by several of her own “friends”. There is the indirect evidence https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/sc/16/06/2016BCSC0686.htm 15/26