City lawyer Fred Muwema drags Facebook to court

City lawyer Fred Muwema has sued social media site Facebook, accusing it of defaming him by refusing to remove defamatory content posted by one of its users.

Through Lavelle solicitors based in Dublin, Muwema contends that Facebook refused to pull down the defamatory posts against him by one of its users, Tom Voltaire Okwalinga (TVO), despite several written complaints to the social media site's administration. Facebook hosts over one million users in Uganda.

Muwema, who filed the suit in Dublin Ireland, is seeking up to $10m (about sh34b) in costs and damages from Facebook Ireland Limited.

The city lawyer says his name and reputation have suffered a lot as a result of the defamatory posts, and that by Facebook refusing to pull down defamatory content against him from their site, they were also defaming him.

In his claim under suit number 2016/4637P, Muwema argues that TVO using his page on Facebook put up several false posts on different dates in March 2016, all aimed at defaming him.

Muwema cited a post on March 19, 2016, where TVO claimed that the lawyer was being guarded by armed Special Forces Command operatives dressed in civilian clothes and another one on March 24 where TVO claimed that ‘Muwema was a joke of a lawyer'.

Led by Andrew Walker, Muwema's lawyers are seeking an order from court directing Facebook to stop hosting any further publication of articles against him by TVO.

In the suit, Muwema is also asking for "an order directing the defendant (Facebook) to provide the plaintiff (Muwema) with any details which it holds relating to the identities and location of the person or persons who operate the Tom Voltaire Okwalinga Facebook page or the individual posters thereon."

Asked whether it would not be costly to pursue the case in an Irish court, Muwema said he would bear the costs because his name and reputation that were soiled by the false publications were more important.

Although there have been several cases of individuals being defamed through posts on Facebook, Muwema becomes the first Ugandan to sue the social media site and his case comes up for hearing today (June 1).

On March 22, 2016, Muwema wrote to Facebook notifying the company of TVO's defamatory posts against him and asked the site to remove them and stop hosting him.

On May 10, 2016, the Facebook team wrote to Muwema's lawyers (Lavelle Solicitors) informing them that the reported defamatory content posted by TVO was no longer accessible in Uganda.

"We understand this [will] resolve the issue. However, if you continue to believe your rights are being violated or infringed, please provide us with additional explanation and we would be happy to look into this matter further," Facebook's Intellectual Property Operations team wrote.

However, Muwema argues that the publications were still accessible in Uganda implying that Facebook ignored his request, thereby becoming an accomplice in defaming him.

Muwema's lawyers on May 11, 2016, wrote to Facebook saying; "We note in your first e-mail you advise that the content we reported was no longer accessible in Uganda. We are instructed that the content is still accessible in Uganda and worldwide."

The lawyers argued that it was completely unacceptable for Facebook to fail to remove the defamatory content against their client seven weeks after Muwema notified the social media site about it.


They argued that the delayed removal of the content was deemed as continued publication of defamatory content by omission, failure or forbearance in failing to remove the infringing content.

In his suit, Muwema is therefore holding Facebook liable in substantial damages for the making, publication, dissemination and distribution of the defamatory content against him.

There have been several cases where TVO has posted defamatory content on Facebook against individuals and government, some of which have resulted into police arrests and prosecution of some individuals believed to be behind the TVO posts.

Those arrested include; Charles Rwomushana, the former director of political intelligence in the Internal Security Organisation and Robert Shaka alias Maverick Blutaski, an information technology, who has since been prosecuted.