According to the French supreme court is an insult on Facebook expressed no public insult, which makes the criminality is significantly reduced. That is, however, not as one that an insult from a lot of friends.
The decision of the supreme court is based on the statements of three employees that insulting texts on Facebook have posted about their employer. They were then dismissed, something that a lower court was justified because the workers are their employer’s publicly had insulted. The supreme court is not, however, in this reasoning, because the statements of the employees only visible for friends, and it was therefore not a public communication.
By the ruling, it is unclear where exactly the boundary lies between personal and public communication. The difference in criminality is, however, considerably: for example there is on non-publicly expressed insults a penalty of up to 38 euros in France, while public insults, the amount can be up to 12,000 euros. In case of more serious offences, such as racist statements, this can still amount to up to 45,000 euros with imprisonment.
However, it seems by the statement more difficult to fire people who are on their personal Facebook page, negative outlets about their employer. The question remains as to what the right is personal: so, it is also possible for statements to post on Facebook pages that are in principle accessible for everyone. In the judgment of the supreme court would insults only to be construed as non-publicly as the one who insults a ‘small circle’ with friends.
Although it is a French case, in the Netherlands there are similar cases. For example, in a Dutch court last year that an ex-employee of Blocker is fired due to negative comments on Facebook. It was a colleague read what was said.