A Swiss court has fined a man for “liking” defamatory comments on Facebook, in what is believed to be the first case of its kind. 
 
 
 
 According to a statement from the Zurich district court, the 45-year-old defendant accused an animal rights activist, Erwin Kessler, of racism and antisemitism and hit the “like” button under several comments from third parties about Kessler that were deemed inflammatory. 
 
 The comments were made in 2015 during heated discussions on a range of Facebook groups about which animal welfare groups should be permitted to take part in a vegan street festival, the Swiss daily Tages Anzeiger reported. 
 
 Kessler sued more than a dozen people who took part in those exchanges, a lawyer for one of the defendants, Amr Abdelaziz, said. 
 
 Several people have already been convicted in the case, mainly for comments they made. It appears the man convicted on Monday was the first to be sanctioned merely for “liking” comments made by others. 
 
 The court said it did not matter that the comments had not originated from the defendant, whose name was not given. By clicking the like button, “the defendant clearly endorsed the unseemly content and made it his own,” the court statement said. 
 
 Kessler had been convicted under Switzerland’s anti-racism law nearly two decades ago, receiving a brief prison sentence for comparing Jewish ritual slaughter methods to Nazi practices. 
 
 The Zurich judge ruled the defendant had failed to prove that the comments he had liked on Facebook were true. At the same time, by liking the comments the man had disseminated them to his list of Facebook contacts, and “thus made them accessible to a large number of people”, the statement said. 
 
 His actions should thus be considered as an “affront to [Kessler’s] honour”, it added. 
 
 The court conditionally fined the man 4,000 Swiss francs (£3,190). 
 
 The defendant can appeal, but Abdelaziz said he was not sure the defendant would devote the time and resources needed to do so, pointing out that a number of the other people Kessler had sued had chosen not to fight the cases in court. 
 
 Even though a verdict from a lower regional court holds less sway than Switzerland’s higher national courts, the lawyer said the ruling could have a big impact. 
 
 He said the courts needed to urgently clarify whether hitting a like button on social media should be given the same weight as other forms of speech more commonly cited in defamation cases. 
 
 “If the courts want to prosecute people for likes on Facebook, we could easily need to triple the number of judges in this country,” he said. “This could also obviously easily become an assault on the freedom of expression.” ||||| In what appears to be a first, a court in Switzerland has fined a man the equivalent of over $4,000 just for clicking the “like” button on what a judge said were defamatory Facebook comments. 
 
 The comments in question suggested that Erwin Kessler, who runs an animal-rights group, holds racist and anti-Semitic views. The defendant (who wasn’t named in the court documents) clicked “like” on some of the comments and linked to some of the posts. 
 
 Kessler has sued a number of people who participated in those discussions, which began in 2015 during a debate over which animal-rights groups should be allowed to participate in a vegan street festival, according to a Swiss newspaper. 
 
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 Several of the people who made specific comments about Kessler have been found guilty of defamation, but Swiss legal experts said the defendant in the most recent case is the first to have been fined just for “liking” such comments. According to court documents, the judge in the case ruled that by clicking the “like” button, the defendant “clearly endorsed the unseemly content.” 
 
 To complicate matters, Kessler was convicted of making racist comments (something that is illegal under Swiss law) in 1998, and briefly served time in prison. But the judge in the recent case said that the defendant had failed to prove that the comments he “liked” were accurate. 
 
 Defamation law as it applies to social networks is a grey area in a lot of countries, including the United States, although the U.S. constitution provides a lot more protection for an individual’s freedom of speech than some other jurisdictions. A federal court found in 2013 that a “like” is protected speech under the First Amendment. 
 
 Even in the U.S., there have been a number of defamation cases involving social media, including a case in which singer Courtney Love was sued for making derogatory comments about a fashion designer and was forced to pay $350,000. 
 
 In Britain, a newspaper columnist was convicted earlier this year of making derogatory comments on Twitter and forced to pay damages of $30,000. 
 
 The Swiss case, however, appears to be the first in which a man has been found guilty of defamation just for clicking the “like” button on someone else’s comments on Facebook. 
 
 In her decision, the Swiss judge argued that by doing so, the man had made the comments “accessible to a large number of people,” since Facebook showed them to all of his friends and followers. Doing this was an “affront to Kessler’s honor,” the judge ruled. 
 
 In a recent Canadian case, a woman was found guilty of making disparaging comments about her neighbor on Facebook. She was held responsible not only for the damage that her own comments caused, but also for subsequent comments made by her friends. ||||| Image copyright Reuters Image caption The Facebook message was posted after a row over sick leave 
 
 An expat American has been arrested in the United Arab Emirates for comments he posted on Facebook while in the US. 
 
 Helicopter mechanic Ryan Pate wrote the Facebook post while in Florida after arguing with employer Global Aerospace Logistics (Gal) over sick leave. 
 
 On returning to Abu Dhabi from Florida, he was arrested for breaking the country's strict cyber-slander laws. 
 
 His trial is due to start on 17 March and he could face up to five years in jail and a large fine if found guilty. 
 
 Legal fee 
 
 Mr Pate's dispute with his employer began in December last year when he sought to extend his holiday to see a doctor about a long-standing back injury. After being told he could not extend his leave, Mr Pate posted a rant about the Abu Dhabi-based firm on his Facebook page. 
 
 In the post, Mr Pate called Gal "backstabbers" and warned other contractors about working for the firm. He also complained about life in the UAE and used a racial slur against the region's people. 
 
 He returned to Abu Dhabi in order to resign but soon after arriving he was called by police who told him to report to a nearby police station. On attending he was shown screenshots of the Facebook message and told his employer had filed charges accusing him of breaking wide-ranging Emirates laws that ban slander. 
 
 The laws were introduced in late 2012 and make it an offence to use the net to mock or deride organisations and individuals. 
 
 Analysis: Jonathan Frewin, BBC Middle East business correspondent 2012 - 2014 
 
 This is the latest in a series of difficult cases for UAE authorities following the introduction of the country's 2012 Cyber-crimes law. 
 
 One involved the detention of a man who had filmed and uploaded a video of an Emirati government official attacking an Indian van driver. The attacker faced a fine of up to 10,000 dirhams (£1,800) and a year in jail. The uploader, charged with defamation for sharing a video of the attack, faced a possible penalty of two years in jail, and a 20,000 dirhams (£3,600) fine. 
 
 And whilst in this case many in the west may be surprised to see that someone could face imprisonment for what might be regarded as innocuous comments on Facebook about an employer, in Gulf culture, protection of reputation is seen as paramount, and enshrined by tough laws. 
 
 Now it has garnered international attention though, this new case poses yet another potentially embarrassing headache for the UAE government. However, the resolution of the road rage incident may offer a model. All charges were dropped, whilst the attacker lost his job. 
 
 Although Mr Pate will no doubt hope that he avoids the fate of another American who was caught up in the UAE's cyber-crimes law. Shezanne Cassim was convicted and spent a year in jail for uploading a satirical video to YouTube. 
 
 "I never even entertained the fact that I would wind up in prison out here for something I put on Facebook in the United States," said Mr Pate. 
 
 Gal has yet to respond to requests for comment about the incident. 
 
 However, news about Mr Pate's arrest has begun to spread online and some people have posted comments on Gal's Facebook page criticising the way it has treated him. 
 
 In addition, Mr Pate's cause has been taken up by his congressman David Jolly who has contacted the US State Department and the UAE attorney general seeking to get the case quashed. 
 
 "It is deeply troubling that Mr Pate now faces judicial proceedings over an action that was done legally in his home country," said Mr Jolly. 
 
 Mr Jolly is also pushing for a meeting with the US ambassador to the UAE to get help with the case. Mr Pate's fiancee has begun an online effort to raise funds to pay his legal fees. 
 
 The US State Department said the American embassy in the country has helped Mr Pate get medical attention and legal advice. Mr Pate was arrested on 16 February and spent about 10 days in jail. He has now been released on bail prior to the trial later this month. 
 
 "I just want to apologise to everybody I dragged into this," Mr Pate said in an interview with a US newspaper. "It is embarrassing, and I never meant for this to happen. I let my emotions get the better of me."
– Be careful what you like online, especially if you're in Switzerland—it may get you in trouble for defamation. In what Fortune reports could be a first, a court there has fined an unidentified man the equivalent of more than $4,000 after he liked defamatory comments on Facebook that accused an animal rights activist of racism and anti-Semitism. The activist, Erwin Kessler, had been the subject of heated Facebook conversations in 2015 about which animal welfare groups should be allowed in a vegan street festival, reports the Swiss daily Tages Anzeiger. In stark contrast, a US federal court ruled in 2013 that an online "like" is protected by the First Amendment. Kessler sued over a dozen people involved in those online exchanges, several of whom have already been convicted for comments they made, reports the Guardian, but this latest fine appears to be the first time someone has been convicted for merely pressing "like." The court, however, ruled that even though the defendant didn't write the comments, he "clearly endorsed the unseemly content and made it his own." A defense attorney says that if courts want to prosecute people for simply liking content, "we could easily need to triple the number of judges in this country," adding it could "easily become an assault on the freedom of expression." (See how Facebook likes are linked to lower self-esteem.)