A screenshot from a chat or an Instagram story can become grounds for a lawsuit, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan has warned. Courts are ordering violators to delete offensive posts, retract false information, and pay moral damages for using photographs without permission, reports infohub.kz.
In Ust-Kamenogorsk, a woman discovered offensive content on a social network. Two users posted her photograph accompanied by obscene language. The authors of the posts directly implied immoral behavior by the woman and mentioned "self-serving schemes with clients."
During the trial, the defendants tried to justify their actions by claiming the text was solely their "personal opinion." The court rejected these arguments. The court ruled that emotional accusations against a specific person are statements that require factual substantiation.
The court ordered the violators to delete the posts and publish a retraction. Each of the two defendants was ordered to pay 300,000 tenge in moral damages, as well as court costs. Higher courts upheld this decision.
A similar case was heard online in the Shu District Court of Zhambyl Region. A resident of Astana found her photograph in two WhatsApp chats with an audience of about 1,500 people.
The court recognized the provided screenshots of the chats as full-fledged electronic evidence, and the posting of the photo without consent as a violation of rights. The court awarded 20,000 tenge in favor of the plaintiff from two neighbors. However, the court denied the request to delete the messages, since after some time it is technically impossible to ensure their deletion from all recipients. The claim against a third defendant was rejected due to lack of evidence of involvement. The Zhambyl Regional Court upheld this decision.
"Thus, personal opinion on social media does not exempt one from liability if it contains specific accusations against a person that are not supported by facts," the Supreme Court materials emphasize.
According to Article 145 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, no one has the right to use an image of any person without their direct consent. This norm applies to any publications on social media, stories, and mass mailings in group chats. Citizens have the legal right to demand through court a retraction of information that damages their honor, dignity, or business reputation if the person who disseminated such information cannot prove that it corresponds to reality.