Although online issues were not covered in great detail by the Leveson inquiry, Robert Jay QC's comments to the Singapore Academy of Law concerning the liability of internet service providers (ISPs) earlier this week are startling.
The lead counsel to the inquiry appears to have suggested that a possible answer to the problem of online libel is the "imaginative solution" of bringing ISPs "within the scope of 'publishers' for the purposes of the law of defamation" and putting ISPs under a duty to ensure that they do not enable their customers to access defamatory content. Not surprisingly, that suggestion has received something of a backlash from internet enthusiasts. Full story
