The law of defamation protects a persons reputation from harm that is unjustified defamation is communication about a person that tends to hurt their reputation it causes people who read or hear the communication to think less of the person. Defamation law is the area of law that seeks to protect a persons reputation by preventing unfair speech that might hurt a persons reputation defamation law is primarily state law defamation laws exist by common law and they also exist by statute many states have defamation laws that are codified in state law. Defamation law in the internet age july 2017 commissioned by the law commission of ontario prepared by david mangan city university london the lco commissioned this paper to provide background research for its defamation law in the internet age project the views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the lco 1 the relationship between defamation breach of . At common law defamation covers any communication that tends to lower the esteem of the subject in the minds of ordinary members of the public the perspective measuring the esteem is highly contextual and depends on the view of the potential audience of the communication and their degree of background knowledge