The Edge Malaysia recently reported a judgment of a case we did at the High Court. An extract of the article is reproduced below-
KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 15): A company and three of its employees have been awarded RM50,000 each by the High Court as damages after a former colleague was found liable for making a series of defamatory social media posts against them and the company.
High Court judge Roz Mawar Rozain ruled in favour of LE Global Services Sdn Bhd and three others — who are the chief executive officer, the chief operating officer, and a senior manager respectively of the company — against the defendant Lai Zhen Yean, after determining that the statements published online had seriously injured the plaintiffs’ reputations and caused personal distress.
The court found that Lai, who had been employed by the company, had posted several false accusations on social media platforms after Lai’s employment ended. These posts, which named both the company and individual staff members, were described by the court as “reckless, malicious, and devoid of factual basis.”
Please click here for the full article.
In Chu Kim Foong & Ors v Lai Zhen Yean & Ors, the defendant, a former employee of the 4th plaintiff, published an article on Medium titled “My Experience Working at a Toxic Cyber Security Company.” This 18-minute, 22-page article gave the impression that it was a serious, detailed exposé about a specific company and that the author had worked there. There were multiple serious allegations of criminal conduct, professional incompetence, ethical violations, and psychological abuse. The defendant took down the article, but it was republished on the Wayback Machine and the link to the WayBack Machine was published on LowYat.Net forum by an unknown person. The High Court found the article to be defamatory and to refer to the plaintiffs, notwithstanding the defendant’s claim that it was merely a work of fiction, among others.
Justice Roz Mawar raised two interesting and novel points.
Firstly, Her Ladyship held the defendant liable for the republication of the article on the Wayback Machine, notwithstanding that it was automatically archived by the Wayback Machine. In respect of the LowYat.Net forum, the defendant was also liable, notwithstanding that the link was published by an unknown user. These republications were a natural and foreseeable consequence of the original publication.
Secondly, the High Court granted a removal order whereby the defendant is required to take the necessary steps to procure the permanent removal of the article from the Wayback Machine and links to the article on LowYat.Net, and to file an affidavit of compliance, among others.
My colleagues, Pauling Hee and Rachel Li Ying Tan, and I acted for the plaintiffs. The full judgment is below.
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