False Facebook profile sparks landmark libel suit
June 30th, 2008 by Scott Marks
The managing director of a British company that finds audiences for TV and radios shows appears to have attracted a one man following.
Grant Rapheal is accused of posted a false profile of his old schoolchum Applausestore.com’s Mathew Firsht on the social networking website Facebook. A fake entry was posted listing Firsht’s personal details and listing a bunch of gay groups that he was signed up to. Firsht is heterosexual.
For a kick, the ad also falsely claimed he was ‘Looking for whatever I can get’ in terms of a relationship.
Yesterday, Raphael’s prank initiated a landmark High Court claim for damages. According to thisislondon.co.uk, “Mr Firsht is suing old schoolfriend Grant Rapheal for libel and misuse of private information in what is believed to be the first defamation case involving Facebook in the UK.”
During Monday’s hearing Firsht’s lawyer Lorna Skinner listed the private information including his whereabouts, activities, birthday and relationship status. To underscore the latter, Firsht was signed up the Facebook groups ‘Gay in the Wood. . . Borehamwood’ and ‘Gay Jews in London.’ He was not, however, a member in good standing of ‘Gay Cocken Affan Yom.’
In addition, Ms. Skinner claims that her client was defamed by additional allegations that he owed large sums of money which he attempted to lie his way out of as well as smears that made Matthew’s Applausestore.com sound Firsh*t.
Miss Skinner continued: ‘Mr Firsht values his privacy highly. It was the gross invasion of his privacy, namely having his personal details, including false details concerning his sexuality, laid bare for all to see that caused him the most distress.’
The two friends had a severe falling out in 2000 that, according to Ms. Skinner, left Mr. Raphael harboring an enormous grudge. She also claimed that Raphael had access to Firsht that “only a very limited number of people would.”
Facebook took off in 2006 and is the seventh most popular site on the internet! Last month alone, it attracted 129.3million visitors. I’m on Facebook, but I’m not sure I get it. It just seems like a lot of silly games and quizzes, but, hey, it’s the closest I’ll ever get to really being friends with Roger Corman.
And it’s okay to goof on me for only having 46 friends. If you can count more friends than you’ve got fingers on one hand, you shouldn’t operate a punch press.
Tags: Applausestore, Facebook, Gay, Gay Jews, Grant Rapheal, Lawsuit, lawyer, libel, Lorna Skinner, Mathew Firsht, Matthew Firsht, PrankShare: 
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