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She said a “like” was associated with a positive, meaning he clearly supported the posts’ content.

The court ruled that the defendant could not prove that the statements about Kessler were true or that he had “serious reasons” to believe them to be so. In 1998, Kessler was in fact convicted of racial discrimination in relation to his efforts to prevent the lifting of a ban on shechita, a Jewish religious method of slaughtering animals.

However, the court ruled that it did not mean he could be accused of racism without proof 19 years later, and the defendant received a suspended fine. Other people have also since been convicted of defaming Kessler in the Swiss cities of Zurich, Lucerne and Bern, according to the Tages Anzeiger.

Media lawyer Martin Steiger said the conviction should not be taken to mean that from now on, anyone “liking” posts may be at risk of being prosecuted for defamation.

“It always depends on what a ‘like’ means and what someone was aiming to achieve with it,” he told the newspaper. “A ‘like’ doesn’t always mean that someone likes the content of a post. If, for instance, there’s an accident, then it also means expressing sympathy.

“Or that you find it good that someone shares something on Facebook.”

Steiger said that the introduction of a wider variety of ways to react to a Facebook post — “sad,” “wow” and “angry” faces — did not change the inherent ambiguity of what someone meant to say with them.

“It’s often unclear which option is suitable,” he said.

The defendant in this case had said in court that he supported the content. The conviction was therefore “not necessarily unjustified,” said Steiger.