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This is one of the reasons why social media that forces you to use your real name is so dangerous to US citizens and its something that 99.9% of the populace doesn't understand.
When Jane Smith post a picture of her breakfast on facebook, she doesn't realize that she is crossing the line between private - public persona.
Does it really work that way? I'd be surprised if posting food pics to Facebook all of a sudden make you meet the criteria for "public person"
No, its a sliding scale of course, but the threshold becomes cumulative. That borderline is what becomes litigated....
A single pic of a bagel or commenting "so cute" on neighbors kids pics wouldn't pass the test.
But constant public commentary, an instagram page, X account, youtube account will at some point push you over the threshold of what a jury finds that you are now a public person.
What if you use your pen name, say for X, but it doesn't take too much digging to discover your real name? Are you a public person?
Well, I think what would happen is that your "pen name persona" would have a higher threshold for being able to claim defamation, and that could spill over to your real name.
For instance, you publish as Bill Smith, but your real name is John Jones....well "Bill Smith" can then be publicly talked about, criticized, speculated about, etc....One of those speculations might be: "Its a fake name, his real name is John Jones".
To add to this, even if you are famous (ie. a public persona) you can still sue someone for defamation. The difference is in the threshold for "actual malice".
Basically its assumed public people are going to be speculated about, so of a politician you can say: "Biden probably was involved with stealing money from Ukraine". Joe Biden as the President would have a very very high threshold to prove "actual malice"....whereas if you say that about a private persona the threshold would be far lower.
Yes. Basically
Anti-SLAPP. I'd say Germany needs this.