KB-2023-003483 - [2025] EWHC 1799 (KB)

On 19 July 2023 the Claimants issued their claim. The Particulars of Claim sought orders requiring all the Defendants, including D3, to “delete all posts related to Claimants” and “offer the identity information of the poster”; alternatively to pay substantial damages for the various torts outlined in [1] above.

On 2 August 2023 the Claimants made an application against D3 for an order for disclosure of further information under CPR Part 18 (“the Part 18 application”). The application sought information capable of identifying those who had posted the defamatory material on the website using the names “Overseas Fox Hunter”, “Balala Bar” and “Kolobok”. The Claimants sought, for example, the names, email addresses and postal addresses of the person(s) involved. Part 18 applies to requests for information between parties to litigation. Although advanced under Part 18, this application was, in substance, a Norwich Pharmacal application, as it sought disclosure of the identity of a wrongdoer so that proceedings could be brought against them: see Norwich Pharmacal v Customs and Excise Commissioners [1974] AC 133 at 175.

On 6 September 2023, D3 received a copy of the Particulars of Claim by post. According to Mr Lin’s evidence, it was only at this point that D3 was provided with the URLs required for identifying the posts complained of. All of the 14 URLs complained of in the Particulars of Claim that linked directly to the website had already been deleted in March 2023 in response to Claimants’ initial complaints. Of its own volition, D3 deleted a further 597 comments that had been posted by the users complained of and blocked the users’ IP addresses and user IDs: Lin 2 at [18]-[19].

By an order dated 24 October 2023, Master Stevens held that England and Wales was the most appropriate forum for the litigation. The Master granted the Claimants permission to serve the Claim Form and if required any other documents on the Defendants outside of the jurisdiction, in the United States.

On 15 March 2024 C2 sent a long email to D3 for the attention of Mr Lin personally. C2 explained the background to this litigation. He said that he had “no grudges” against D3 but considered that he and his family had been “innocently cyberbullied” on the website. He said “the poster used your platform to wantonly slander and harass our family. His methods are despicable and outrageous…it is equivalent to digging up my family’s ancestral graves! As a man, as long as I am still alive in this world, how can I let this abuser go [?]”. C2 alluded to the costs of litigation and said “[a]s long as the website provides the identity of the poster in accordance with the court order, we will exempt the website from liability”, but that D3 would need to bear the legal costs. He then provided detailed information about D1, who he described as “the poster”. He said that they had submitted at least 15 emails to D3 but that the company had “only replied to one email and did not respond to the lawsuit”, such that “[o]ut of helplessness, we listed your company as the third defendant in this case”. He reiterated his request that D3 “disclose the identity information of the poster according to the court order” to “help [D3] get out of this case, but also help our family of the victim”.

On 9 April 2024, the claim was served on D3 in the United States.

On 26 April 2024 D3 filed its Acknowledgement of Service.