An interdict had been granted to a Facebook user by the South Gauteng High Court after a friend commented on a status update that defamed him.

The case was brought before the court after a Facebook user posted a status update about a party he attended, and was met with the following comment from a friend:

I wonder too what happened to the person who I counted as a best friend for 15 years, and how this behaviour is justified. Remember I see the broken hearted faces of your girls every day. Should we blame the alcohol, the drugs, the church, or are they more reasons to not have to take responsibility for the consequences of your own behaviour? But mostly I wonder whether, when you look in the mirror in your drunken testosterone haze, do you still see a man?

Instead of responding back to the comment, the user took the matter to court, claiming that the comment defamed him on a number of grounds.

In a first for South Africa, you may now have to think twice about your Facebook comments, status updates, or tagged photos of other people's personal lives.

"In the subsequent ruling, Judge Nigel Willis tackled the defamation case mindful of social media and its current role in society," businesstech.co.za. says. "Judge Willis ruled that he could not find any evidence that Facebook would comply with a request to take the offending comment down – and said that it’s better to tackle users, rather than Facebook itself, in matters of privacy."

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