Online Defamation in Australia: Platforms, Comments and Search Results

Two High Court decisions define online publisher liability in Australia: Voller held a page administrator can be a publisher of third-party comments it facilitated, while Defteros held a search engine is not a publisher merely for an organic hyperlink.

This article addresses publisher liability for online and digital defamation across Australia: the Voller and Defteros High Court decisions, the Stage 2 digital intermediary exemptions and defence, and how South Australia and Western Australia diverge from the reforming jurisdictions. It does not address defamatory publications made offline.

Voller: A Page Administrator Can Be a Publisher of Comments It Did Not Write

Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Voller [2021] HCA 27 concerned media companies that operated public Facebook pages on which readers left comments, some of which were found to be defamatory of the plaintiff. The media companies argued they were not publishers of comments they had not written and had no advance knowledge of. A 5-2 majority of the High Court rejected that argument. The Court held that by creating a public Facebook page and posting content that invited public engagement, the media companies facilitated, encouraged and thereby participated in the publication of the comments that followed, making them publishers of that third-party content for defamation purposes. The decision rejected the narrower argument that a publisher must know of the specific defamatory matter before liability can attach. Voller's reasoning is not confined to media organisations; it applies in principle to any person or business that maintains a public social media page inviting comments.

Defteros: A Search Engine Is Not a Publisher of What It Links To

Google LLC v Defteros [2022] HCA 27 concerned a defamation claim against Google over an organic search result: a hyperlink and short snippet pointing to a newspaper article the plaintiff said defamed him. A majority of the High Court held Google was not a publisher of the underlying article merely by displaying the hyperlink and snippet in its search results. Notice of the article's contents, followed by a failure to remove the search result, was not, without more, enough on its own to make Google a publisher. The decision left open that a search engine could be found to be a publisher in different circumstances, for example where its results actively encourage or entice a click, or otherwise amount to an adoption of the underlying content, rather than a neutral organic listing.

The Statutory Digital Intermediary Rules

Stage 2 reforms built a statutory framework around this case law, distinct from it, in force in New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and, from 26 December 2025, Queensland. Two things run in parallel. First, a set of exemptions protects intermediaries providing purely technical functions such as caching, conduit transmission or storage with no active editorial role, and separately protects search engine providers over organic (non-sponsored) search results, along with an early-determination mechanism to resolve the exemption question quickly. Second, a standalone defence protects an intermediary that operates an accessible complaints mechanism and takes "access prevention steps" within 7 days of receiving a compliant written complaint about specific content. Where these provisions apply, a court can also order a non-party digital intermediary, one that is not itself a defendant, to prevent access to defamatory digital matter once an injunction against the primary publisher has been granted.

South Australia's Gap: No Statutory Safe Harbour for Intermediaries

South Australia's position on Stage 2 must not be flattened into "SA adopted Stage 2 too." SA took two specific elements: the court's power to order a non-party intermediary to prevent access to defamatory material once an injunction issues, and an extension of absolute privilege to reports made to police, in force in SA from 15 December 2025 and framed around protecting people, particularly victims of violence, who report crimes without fear of a defamation claim over the report itself. But SA declined the other half of the Stage 2 package: the intermediary exemptions for caching, conduit, storage and search engine providers, and the complaints-based innocent dissemination defence. Confirming this directly against SA's own consolidated Act, its defences division ends at ordinary innocent dissemination, with no equivalent to the digital intermediary defence found elsewhere, and it has no exemptions division at all. The practical consequence is real: a digital intermediary operating in South Australia has no statutory safe harbour equivalent to the one available in New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, Tasmania, the Northern Territory or Queensland, and remains exposed to ordinary common law publisher liability, informed by reasoning like Voller, without the statutory defence a platform in those other jurisdictions could raise. See defamation law in South Australia for the fuller picture.

Western Australia Has None of This

Western Australia has adopted neither Stage 1 nor Stage 2, so none of the intermediary exemptions, the complaints-based defence, or the non-party takedown power exist there in any form. A platform or intermediary assessing its exposure in Western Australia is dealing with the unmodified 2005 Act and ordinary common law publisher principles only. See defamation law in Western Australia for the complete picture of how litigation there diverges from the rest of the country.

Digital Intermediary Rules by Jurisdiction

Neither Case Decides Every Future Dispute

Voller and Defteros answer the specific questions put to the High Court on the facts before it; neither hands down a general rule that resolves every future dispute about online intermediary liability automatically. Voller concerned public Facebook pages the defendants actively created and populated with content designed to draw engagement, a materially different scenario from, say, a private message forwarded without the sender's encouragement, or a passive hosting service with no editorial role. Defteros concerned an organic search result with no sponsored placement or algorithmic promotion beyond ordinary indexing; the Court was careful to leave open that different facts, such as results a platform actively promotes or that are shaped to encourage a click, could produce a different answer. Anyone applying either case to a new fact pattern needs to compare the specific conduct in question against what the Court actually examined, not treat either decision as a blanket rule covering all online intermediaries.

This article provides general legal information about online and digital defamation liability in Australia, verified 20 July 2026. It does not assess whether any particular platform, post or search result is defamatory or would attract liability. For advice on your situation, consult a legal practitioner admitted in the relevant Australian state or territory.

Related reading: the Australian defamation law hub, defamation defences for the statutory digital intermediary defence in detail, defamation law in South Australia, and defamation law in Western Australia.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I be liable for defamatory comments other people leave on my social media page in Australia?

You can be, following Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Voller [2021] HCA 27, which held that a page administrator who created a public page and posted content facilitating engagement can be a publisher of the comments that follow, without needing to know of the specific defamatory comment in advance.

Is Google liable for defamatory content it links to in search results?

Not automatically. Google LLC v Defteros [2022] HCA 27 held Google was not a publisher of an article merely by showing an organic hyperlink and snippet, and that notice followed by non-removal was not, on its own, enough to make it a publisher. The Court left open that different facts, such as results that actively encourage a click, could produce a different answer.

What protection do digital intermediaries have under Australian defamation law?

Where Stage 2 reforms are in force, exemptions protect intermediaries with purely technical roles and search engines over organic results, and a defence protects an intermediary that runs an accessible complaints process and acts within 7 days of a valid complaint. South Australia and Western Australia do not have this framework.

Does South Australia have the same digital intermediary protections as New South Wales?

No. South Australia adopted only the non-party takedown power and police-report privilege from the Stage 2 package. It declined the intermediary exemptions and the complaints-based defence, so intermediaries in SA have no statutory safe harbour equivalent to the reforming jurisdictions.

Are there any digital intermediary protections in Western Australia?

No. Western Australia has adopted neither reform stage, so none of the exemptions, defences or non-party takedown powers described here exist there.

Can a court order a platform to block access to defamatory content even if the platform is not being sued?

Yes, where the relevant Stage 2 provisions are in force, a court can order a non-party digital intermediary to take access-prevention steps once an injunction against the primary publisher has issued. This power exists even in South Australia, despite SA lacking the other intermediary protections.