Defamation Bill — Clause 5 — Operators of Websites — Defence to Defamation Action if They Did Not Post Statement — 12 Sep 2012 at 17:00

The majority of MPs voted to provide website operators with a defence to defamation action if they did not post the statement on the website; subject to circumstances which defeat the defence.

MPs were considering the Defamation Bill[1][2]. The amendment rejected in this vote was:

  • Amendment: 7, page 3, line 22, leave out clause 5.

Clause 5 of the Bill[3] titled Operators of websites and provides a defence to website operators facing a defamation action if they did not post the statement on the website however this defence cannot be used if:

  • it was not possible for the claimant to identify the person who posted the statement,
  • the claimant gave the operator a notice of complaint in relation to the statement, and
  • the operator failed to respond to the notice of complaint in accordance with any provision contained in regulations.

Regulations[4] were subsequently made.

Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Alliance0 10100.0%
Con237 (+1 tell) 0078.0%
DUP0 3037.5%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent0 10100.0%
Lab0 196 (+2 tell)077.0%
LDem39 (+1 tell) 0070.2%
SDLP0 2066.7%
Total:276 204076.5%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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