The intended defendants have been identified following a court order by Facebook, which, along with Instagram, was used to host pages with advertisements containing allegedly defamatory statements about her in order to sell skincare products.

The advertisements used attention-grabbing false headlines such as “Miriam sacked from RTÉ” which results in the ads appearing in Facebook users’ “news feeds”, it is claimed.

When the user clicks on the ads, he or she is directed to pages on which the user is encouraged to buy skincare products falsely stated to be endorsed or owned by Ms O’Callaghan, it is claimed.

Ms O’Callaghan has nothing to do with the skincare range and is distressed at being associated with what she says is a scam product. A number of Irish people had been victims of this false advertising and had to cancel their bank cards after ordering a “free trial” in the advertisements, it is claimed.

Source: Irish Times