Can he really sue her for character defamation?

[avikar76]

Some random girl i don't know messaged me telling that someone i'm facebook friends with gave her a STD and did all this horrible stuff to her. That he was meeting girls off the internet and knowingly exposing his herpes to them and got away with it because these girls weren't connected to his real life. She isn't facebook friends with him but because he didn't have his friend list hidden, she ended up messaging everyone on his friendlist. He found out and got really pissed off and started telling people it wasn't true. He said he would try to do something about it. Realistically, can he actually take legal action against her? She wasn't harassing any of us, just bashing him about what he did to her. I told him that I think all he can do is just block//report her. I think on facebook if u click on report, the most they do is just make you unavailable in searches by that person.

[jorel]

He can sue her or anyone else, for that matter, but his chances of winning are slim to none.

Truth is an absolute defense to slander, libel, or defamation of character claims.

Even if her statements are NOT true, she is not liable if she reasonably believed them to be true, or if she made the statements without the requisite intent to damage him. She could successfully argue that she was merely trying to protect others from harm.

[demarco]

If he can prove that the statements were false, maybe get a STD test result and prove her wrong he might be successful. "Libel is the type of defamation with a permanent record, like a newspaper, a letter, a website posting, an email, a picture, or a radio or TV broadcast. If you can prove that someone libeled you, and that person does not have a good defence (see the section on defences below), then a court will presume that you suffered damages and award you money to pay for your damaged reputation. "

All states except Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee recognize that some categories of false statements are so innately harmful that they are considered to be defamatory per se. In the common law tradition, damages for such false statements are presumed and do not have to be proven. "Statements are defamatory per se where they falsely impute to the plaintiff one or more of the following things"
2.Allegations or imputations "of loathsome disease" (historically leprosy and sexually transmitted disease, now also including mental illness)

And about her argument that she was trying to help other from harm, that I would have to say is not within her authority to be doing that. Who is she to be going around telling others that he has STDS? She obviously had sex with him and did not look into his sexual history which means she is also liable and responsible for not taking all precautions.