“I just wanted to say that the head of the registry office is a rude person who does not know very well the procedures to which he must apply and is a person who is truly ignorant both in ways and in words. If you hire staff this way, it is better to close.”

This post, published by a user on the Facebook page of an Italian municipality – added to similar statements addressed directly to the municipal employee in the registry offices -, cost the person responsible the sentence to pay damages quantified in 5,000.00 euros by the Court of Pavia (judgment of 14 March 2019).

This conduct was judged not only as outrageous for the offenses directed directly at the public official, but also defamatory for the publication of the post on Facebook as it can reach an indeterminate number of people or otherwise quantitatively appreciable.

The decision of the Court of Pavia is in line with a now well-established case law according to which the post on social networks of offensive content constitutes aggravated defamation as committed by a means of advertising.