(iii)
Each of the defendant companies posts an extract or
snippet of a story with a hyperlink, and usually a
photograph or video, which will, if followed, take a reader
of the public Facebook page to the original article on the
website or in the digital publication of the
newspaper/broadcaster;
(iv)
With some minor exceptions, which are presently
irrelevant, if any comments are to be permitted to the
snippets or on a page, it is impossible to delete in
advance all comments to a particular extract;
(v)
It is possible to hide comments that contain particular
words or triggers upon which the program operating the
public Facebook page would operate to hide the whole
comment;
(vi)
By using a list of extremely common words, which any
comment would be difficult to avoid, it is possible to hide,
in advance, all, or substantially all, comments;
(vii)
Comments that have been hidden, either in advance or
otherwise, can be “un-hidden” by the Administrator of the
page;
(viii)
The public Facebook page of each of the media
defendants is published for a number of purposes
associated with the success of the company and its
media publications, including: promulgation of summaries
of articles of interest; exciting the interest of Facebook
users; increasing the number of subscribers to the digital
media publication or newspaper; and increasing the
profile of the public Facebook page and the initial media
publication, which affects advertising revenue;
(ix)
A hidden comment is unable to be seen by the public, but
shows up as a light grey (or lighter tone) comment to the
Administrator, the person who posted the comment, and
Facebook friends of the person who posted the comment;
(x)
A comment that is blocked, deleted or hidden will be
published on the commentator’s personal Facebook
account and visible to her or his Facebook friends
thereon, but will be difficult to find on that page, unless
the reader knows to look for it;
(xi)
Certain initial posts by the media outlet would be
expected to excite adverse comment about a person who
is the subject of the post, including comment that is
unreasonable, factually incorrect and damaging to the
reputation of the person involved;
(xii)
The publications of these relevant original posts by the
media companies (i.e. posts to which the comments