Sentenced for insulting ex on Facebook

It is quite evident that publishing phrases, news, videos, photos, links and so on on social networks means sharing them with a potentially indeterminate number of people. This number can be numerically appreciable.

Furthermore, each post can be saved and reshared by anyone who has access to that profile (this obviously depends on the type of privacy reserved for the publication).

It is not surprising, therefore, that a man is condemned for having spread, through the Facebook wall, offensive and denigrating words towards his ex-girlfriend. Anyone who had access to the profile could read and in turn save and share those contents damaging to the honor and decorum of the woman.

Therefore, the dissemination of defamatory posts via social media evidently constitutes the form of communication with multiple people that constitutes the crime of aggravated defamation pursuant to art. 595, third paragraph of the Criminal Code.

I recall that the prerequisites for the commission of this crime are:

1) the precise or easy identification of the recipient of the insulting phrases;

2) communication with multiple people (due to the public nature of the virtual space and its possible uncontrolled diffusion;

3) the awareness and will to use expressions objectively capable of offending the decorum, honour and reputation of the passive subject.