A California appeals court has upheld the right to post
disparaging comments about public companies on internet message
boards. The court said that message boards are a “public forum”
under a US law designed to prevent Strategic Litigation Against
Public Participation, known as Anti-SLAPP legislation.
In the case, brought by ComputerXpress, a company selling
computer related products, the court found that it was in the
public interest to have the messages displayed. ComputerXpress had
alleged that several individuals had made “numerous false and
disparaging statements” about the company on the internet.
According to the court, the messages merely amounted to the
opinions of shareholders. The court found that, “their tone and
content identified them as statements of opinion and not of fact,”
and they were not the words of a competitor.
Crucially, the court distinguished the content of the messages
from those that are defamatory. In this case, the messages were
deemed by the court to be acceptable because they were merely
“disparaging,” not defamatory.
