Libel and slander are different. Both are defamatory. People...

Libel and slander are different. Both are defamatory. People like to cite the AFR article "Hotcopper Trolls on Borrowed time". But if you dig deeper you'll find that court worthy cases of libel that involved HC involved some very serious criminal libel including:

Posts falsely naming a CEO as a member of a known crime syndicate. Specific threats to the named family of a senior employee. False allegations of sexual misconducts aimed at a company director. Posts alleging that a secretary knowingly and deliberately falsified company releases. Another one involved repeated allegations from a poster that a CEO illegally lent company money to a friend. All were false. Some posters refused to apologise and withdraw their allegations.

We'd all like to be protected from that, as we should be, But freedom of speech is still alive believe it not in Australia. So when Bert says to Ernie on HC he thinks he is a dupe and he thinks the company is shit and will go broke. That wont cut it.