Businessman plagued by adverts declaring his death takes Facebook to court

An example of a Facebook advert claiming Mr Duffy had died

It is believed to be the first time Facebook had been taken to court for repeatedly hosting adverts falsely claiming somebody’s death.

Mr Tweed, a media lawyer who has worked with clients including Britney Spears and Sarah, Duchess of York, said he would seek to prove that Facebook failing to deal with the adverts was defamatory.  Since Facebook’s non-US headquarters are in Ireland this could potentially pave the way for further claims against the company, which Mr Tweed said had often escaped liability by being treated as a platform, rather than a publisher.

In 2019, Facebook paid £3m to charity to settle a defamation lawsuit from the financial journalist Martin Lewis after more than 1,000 scam adverts using his face and name. Defamation lawsuits in Ireland have resulted in damages as high as €10m (£8.7m). Mr Tweed said he could not comment on what damages might be expected but that comparisons could be drawn with the cases.

Ireland’s defamation laws allow a defence of “innocent dissemination” but Mr Tweed argued that it no longer applied once Facebook had been informed of the problem.  “Once we put them on notice, they become liable as a publisher,” he said. “They’re making massive sums out of all this not only in terms of the financial returns, but data. This is their responsibility. We need that precedent.”

Mr Duffy said the adverts his consulting businesses had been “decimated” by damaging his reputation, and that his family had been inundated with messages and calls from people who had seen and believed the adverts.  “It’s draining, it just exhausts everybody. And I can’t believe that Facebook keeps on doing this,” he said.

Facebook said: "“We have removed the scam ads that Gavin Duffy reported to us and we’re putting significant resources towards tackling these kinds of ads. It’s important to us that ads on Facebook are useful to people and not used to promote deceptive behaviour, like using images of public figures to mislead people.

"When we find ads that try to get around our enforcement, we disable the ad accounts and remove the scammers ability to advertise in the future.”