Last updated 17 February 2026

A publisher is anyone who communicates defamatory matter to a third party.

Set out below are some case examples where consideration was given to who can be a publisher.

In the case of Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Voller; Nationwide News Pty Limited v Voller; Australian News Channel Pty Ltd v Voller [2021] HCA 27, Mr Voller commenced defamation proceedings against three media companies regarding comments posted by third parties about him on the respective Facebook pages of the media companies. The High Court found that the media companies were publishers of comments made by others on their public Facebook pages. The acts of the media companies in facilitating, encouraging and thereby assisting the posting of comments by Facebook users determined that the media companies were publishers of those comments. Companies cannot rely on lack of knowledge of the material posted (or lack of intention to publish them) on their social media pages to deny that they are responsible for publishing the third-party comments.

In contrast to the outcome in Voller, in the case of Google LLC v Defteros [2022] HCA 27 the defendant (Google LLC) was found not to be a publisher. Google LLC had been accused of defaming a pub bouncer turned criminal lawyer for providing the search result of a defamatory article concerning the lawyer. The High Court found that Google LLC acted as reference provider only and had no participation in any way in publishing the article.

Recent changes in 2025 to the Defamation Act may protect digital platforms and hosts (referred to as ‘digital intermediaries’) and search engines from defamation for the publication of digital matter in certain circumstances, for example:

  • digital intermediaries where they did not take an active role in the publication (s 10C Defamation Act 2005 (Qld))
  • search engines where the search engine’s role was limited to providing automated search results (except where search results are promoted or prioritised because of payment or another benefit to the search engine) (s 10D).