In 2009, a tenant was sued by her landlord for defamation after she complained about her moldy apartment on Twitter. A judge eventually threw out the case. However, in 2013, more companies are winning social media defamation lawsuits.

Defamation involves making a false statement against a person or company that harms their reputation. Libel is defamation by written words, which is the basis for many recent social media lawsuits. In order to have a legal case, a person would have to prove that a comment posted on social media was false and seriously damaged their reputation.

The case of the moldy apartment tweet was thrown out of court because a judge found the tenant’s posted words to be too vague to have negatively impacted her landlord. However, this should be a lesson to all landlords and tenants: Think before you post. While it may be tempting to gripe on social media about a tenant who is late with rent checks or one who has broken a lease agreement, you could be opening yourself up to a lawsuit.

No matter how harmless it might seem to complain to your social media following a struggle you might be having, it’s best to keep the dirty details about your landlord and tenant relationship offline.

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