Defamation and Privacy
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
5-16-2024
Abstract
The laws of defamation and privacy are at once similar and dissimilar. Falsity is the hallmark of defamation – the sharing of untrue information that tends to harm the subject’s standing in their community. Truth is the hallmark of privacy – the disclosure of facts about an individual who would prefer those facts to be private. Publication of true information cannot be defamatory; spreading of false information cannot violate an individual’s privacy. Scholars of either field could surely add epicycles to that characterization – but it does useful work as a starting point of comparison.
Keywords
Defamation, Privacy Law, Tort Law, First Amendment, constitutional law, Freedom of Speech
Publication Title
Media and Society After Technological Disruption
Repository Citation
Hurwitz, Gus, "Defamation and Privacy" (2024). Book Chapters. 458.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_chapters/458
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009174411.009
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009174411.009