A false post or comment about you: what to do today in Ireland

Someone has posted something about you that is not true. It might be a comment under a local news story, a post in a community group, a review, a thread about your business, or a message that is being screenshotted and shared. This guide sets out the routes in the order most people take them, what each route can and cannot do, and what to avoid in the first few days.

The first part is written for the person the post is about. If you are the person who wrote the post, go to the section headed "If you are the one who posted it".

Start with the clock

Everything else in this guide sits inside one deadline. A defamation action must be brought within one year of the date the cause of action accrued. For online material that is the date the statement was first capable of being viewed, not the date you found it. The court may extend the limit to two years, but only where the interests of justice require it and the prejudice to you of refusing would significantly outweigh the prejudice to the other side. That is a high test, and most people plan around the one year.

One cause of action covers every publication of the same statement to the public by the same publisher, so a post that has been live for months is still one publication with one clock. A repost or share by a different person is a separate publication with its own clock. The guides on the time limit and when the clock starts go through this in detail, and the time limit tool will work the dates for you.

Step one: capture the evidence

Do this before you contact anyone. Posts get edited and deleted, and a statement that has vanished is harder to prove than one you can show.

For each post or comment, keep a screenshot that shows the full statement, the account name or handle, the date and time, the URL where you can see it, and the surrounding thread so the context is clear. Save the page itself where your browser allows. Note down anyone you know saw it, and keep any messages from people telling you they saw it. Do not crop out timestamps and do not annotate the originals; keep your notes separately.

If the account is anonymous, record everything visible about it now: the handle, the profile text, the join date if shown, other posts. The anonymous accounts guide explains the identification order that became available in the Circuit Court on 1 March 2026.

The evidence kit gives you a checklist for all of this.

Step two: ask whether the Act covers it

Under s.6 of the Defamation Act 2009 there is one tort of defamation. A defamatory statement is one that tends to injure a person's reputation in the eyes of reasonable members of society. It must have been published to at least one person other than you, and it must identify you or be understood to refer to you. As an individual you do not have to prove financial loss. A company, since 1 March 2026, must show the statement caused or is likely to cause serious financial loss.

Two things narrow what counts. A statement of opinion, honestly held, may be defended under s.20, and a true statement is defended under s.16, with the person who made it carrying the task of proving it true. So a post that says a tradesperson took money and did no work is a statement of fact that may be defamatory if untrue. A post that says someone's work was poor value may be an opinion. The guides on the four things to prove and truth, no names and "allegedly" walk through each element.

Step three: a notice to the platform

Under Article 16 of the Digital Services Act, every hosting service must offer an electronic route to notify it of illegal content. Your notice should say why the content is illegal, give its exact location (the URL, not just the account), include your name and email, and contain a statement that you believe in good faith the information is accurate. Coimisiún na Meán is Ireland's Digital Services Coordinator.

A notice can get the content removed or restricted. It cannot get you an apology, a correction or damages, and the platform may refuse. Keep a copy of the notice and the response; both are useful later. The notice builder structures the notice so nothing required is missing. A platform that acts as a mere host may rely on the innocent publication defence in s.27, which is one reason the author, not the platform, is usually the person a claim is brought against.

Step four: a written request to the author

Many posts come down after a calm, private, written request. Say what was posted, where, why it is untrue, and what you want: removal, and where it matters a correction to the same audience. Keep it short and factual. Do not threaten, do not accuse the author of anything beyond the post itself, and do not demand money. Keep a copy and note the date you sent it.

Two points from the Act help here. Under s.24 an apology is not an admission of liability, which removes one of the reasons people refuse to say sorry. And if the author offers a correction and apology, that is the kind of outcome a court would expect you to have considered: before issuing proceedings your solicitor must tell you about alternative dispute resolution, and the court can take the parties' attitude to it into account on costs.

Step five: if the post appears when people search your name

Google's EU delisting form, based on Articles 17 and 21 of the GDPR, can remove a result from EU searches of your name. It does not remove the page, and the page still appears for other searches. It runs alongside, not instead of, the notice to the host. The Google results guide covers the form and the Data Protection Commission route if Google refuses.

Step six: a solicitor's letter

If the post stays up, a solicitor's letter is the usual next step. It sets out the statement, why it may be defamatory, and what is required: removal, an undertaking not to repeat, a correction, sometimes compensation. It also opens the door to an offer of amends under ss.22 and 23, where the other side offers a correction, apology and compensation. A planning assumption, not a tariff: a letter costs €300 to €1,000, and published hourly rates run from €250 to €400 (Irish Times, April 2026). A solicitor must give you a written costs notice under s.150 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015, and may not charge a percentage of damages. The cost guide sets out the figures for each stage.

Step seven: court

The Circuit Court hears defamation claims up to €75,000, with a judge sitting alone, and most claims settle within that limit. The High Court has no cap, and for proceedings issued on or after 1 March 2026 a judge sits alone there too under the Defamation (Amendment) Act 2026. The District Court has no defamation jurisdiction and the small claims procedure does not cover it. The changes brought in by the 2026 Act are tracked at the rule-change tracker.

The court can award damages, make a declaratory order under s.28 that the statement was false and defamatory, a correction order under s.30 (since 2026 with the same or similar prominence as the original), and a prohibition order under s.33 against further publication. Costs follow the event: a losing claimant normally pays the other side's costs. A contested Circuit Court trial is a planning assumption of €10,000 to €30,000 a side. Civil legal aid is not available for defamation under s.28(9) of the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995.

What not to do

• Do not reply publicly in anger. Your reply is a publication too, and it draws readers to the original.
• Do not repost or share the statement to show people what was said. Describe it instead, and send the screenshot privately.
• Do not contact the author's employer, family or customers. That is the kind of conduct the other side will raise later.
• Do not create a second account to argue or to gather information.
• Do not delete your own comments in the thread. They are part of the record.
• Do not tell the author they will be arrested. There is no criminal defamation in Ireland, and a threat you cannot carry out weakens your position.
• Do not wait for the post to blow over. The clock does not pause.

When it is a crime, not defamation

If the post contains threats, a campaign of harassment, or an intimate image of you, the matter is a crime under the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 and the route is the Gardaí, not a defamation claim. The threats and harassment guide covers that route. If you are in danger, call 999 or 112.

If you are the one who posted it

This section is for the author of the post or comment.

First, do not delete the evidence of what you wrote, and do not alter it. Take a copy for yourself, then consider taking the post down. Taking it down limits further harm and is something a court looks at when it comes to conduct, and under s.24 an apology is not an admission of liability.

Second, look honestly at what you wrote. If it is a statement of fact, could you prove it true under s.16? The burden would be on you. If it is an opinion, is it clearly an opinion and based on facts you could point to? That is the honest opinion defence under s.20. If you were passing on something you had heard, note that repeating an allegation is itself a publication, and adding "allegedly" does not change that.

Third, if you receive a solicitor's letter, read the deadline and do not ignore it. The letter guide explains what a letter is and is not. The offer of amends under ss.22 and 23 lets you offer a correction, apology and compensation; if the other side rejects it, the offer is a defence unless you knew the statement was false, and the court weighs conduct after an offer when fixing costs. The apology guide sets out what a good correction contains.

Where this leaves you

You know the order: evidence, notice to the platform, a written request to the author, delisting if the page ranks for your name, a solicitor's letter, then court inside one year. The what can I do tool takes the facts of your post and shows which of these routes are open and in what order. If the post is still up and the clock is running, talk to a solicitor with your screenshots and dates ready.