New Zealand Act
The Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 aims to reduce serious harm caused by online communications and provides victims with a fast...
Plain-English explainers, not legal advice. Use the linked official source for section-level detail, and get advice for your situation.
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The Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 aims to deter, prevent and reduce harm caused by digital communications to individuals. It provides victims with a fast and effective way to seek redress.
For businesses, this means online conduct can have legal consequences beyond reputation damage. The Act defines harm as serious emotional distress and sets out 10 communication principles that guide complaint assessments and court decisions.
Practical sense check
The Act is most relevant where a business communicates online about identifiable people or provides a platform for others to do so.
Examples include retailers with social media pages, SaaS companies with user forums, marketplaces with seller reviews, and schools with student reporting channels. These businesses may receive complaints about harmful digital communications.
Practical sense check
The Act sets out 10 communication principles that guide what is considered harmful digital communication. These principles help businesses understand what content may breach the Act.
In summary, digital communications should not disclose sensitive personal facts, threaten or intimidate, be grossly offensive, be indecent or obscene, harass, make false allegations, breach confidence, encourage harmful behaviour, or be used for denigration or incitement.
Practical sense check
The Act establishes an Approved Agency to receive, assess and investigate complaints about harmful digital communications. The Agency uses advice, negotiation and mediation to resolve complaints where possible.
The Agency can decline or stop investigating complaints that are trivial, vexatious or outside the Act’s scope. If unresolved, the Agency may recommend applying to the District Court for orders such as takedown, correction or apology.
The Court considers factors like harm, purpose, context, spread, truth, public interest, conduct of parties, and practicality when deciding on orders.
Sections 23 to 25 provide important protections for businesses hosting user-posted content. An online content host can avoid civil or criminal liability for specific content by following the statutory notice and counter-notice process.
This process requires the host to receive a valid notice of complaint, notify the content author, and allow the author to respond with a counter-notice within 48 hours. If the author consents to removal or does not respond, the host must remove the content promptly.
If the author objects in a valid counter-notice, the host leaves the content in place and informs the complainant. Following this process carefully is essential to gain statutory protection.
The Act restricts disclosure of personal information about complainants and authors during the complaint process. Disclosure is generally not permitted except by court order.
While the Act does not impose a strict record-keeping obligation, keeping detailed records of complaints, notices, counter-notices, contact attempts and takedown actions is a practical step to demonstrate compliance.
Documents to keep in order
The Act covers emails, messages, posts, comments, images, videos and in-app communications that may cause serious emotional distress.
The Approved Agency receives and investigates complaints about harmful digital communications and tries to resolve them through advice, negotiation or mediation before court involvement.
By following the statutory notice and counter-notice process in sections 23 to 25, including timely removal of content when required.
While not a strict legal obligation, keeping detailed records is a practical step to demonstrate compliance with the Act.
Offences can result in fines up to $50,000 for individuals and $200,000 for bodies corporate, depending on the specific offence.