Laughing emoji can be defamatory, says court
A laughing face emoji can be construed as defamation if it comes at the end of an online post making fun of a person’s physical disability, Italy’s supreme court has ruled.
The court weighed in on a dispute that began on Facebook and concerned traffic problems in the northern town of Luino.
The disagreement culminated with a user making fun of the poor eyesight of another participant in the chat, punctuating his observations with a series of laughing faces.
The author of the insulting post was convicted of defamation by a court in Varese. He was fined €800 (NZ$1340) and ordered to pay €2000 (NZ$3350) compensation to his victim, a local businessman, who had brought the case.
The verdict was subsequently overturned by an appeal court in Milan, which ruled that the online clash amounted to the use of insulting language but did not constitute a crime.
Italy’s top judges have now ruled that the phrases, and the emojis, did amount to defamation, and have sent the case back to the appeal court for the cost of the offence to be reassessed.
After discussing the legal distinction between an insult and defamation, which involves damaging a person’s reputation in front of others, the supreme court decided that the Facebook exchange was indeed defamatory.
‘‘The novelty of this sentence is that the emoticon is recognised as an instrument of communication that strengthens the message of the text,’’ said Vera Cuzzocrea, a Rome psychologist.
Emojis are becoming increasingly subject to legal interpretation. A United States study found that they had been mentioned in court at least 50 times a year between 2004 and 2019.
In notable cases, a French man was convicted of making threats for sending an image of a pistol to his girlfriend, and an Israeli couple were considered to have undertaken to rent a flat after they sent affirmative emoticons to the owner.