Fighting New Demons with Older Weapons: Countering Online Harassment with Actio Injuriarum under the Law of Delict

Abstract

Online harassment has undoubtedly become a menace that has severe negative impacts on victims and the society at large. Owing to its grave nature, jurisdictions around the world have utilized different branches of law such as criminal law, tort law and the intellectual property law to redress the victims of online harassment as well as to penalize the perpetrators. This paper attempts to analyse whether actio inuriarum under the law of delict can be employed as a corrective justice mechanism to provide solatium to victims of online harassment, considering the severe emotional distress they undergo due to harm caused to their dignity, reputation and privacy. The paper adopts the view that actio injuriarum provides an effective remedy to plaintiffs for impairment of dignity, person and reputation, caused by insult and thereby analyses how it could be utilized as a general remedy for sentimental damages suffered by the victims of online harassment. It concludes with a finding that the principles and elements of actio injuriarum are broad enough to redress the victims of online harassment, which is releatively a new phenomenon, although there may be little to no case law illustrating the exact position upto date.