Vivy Yusof files defamation suit against netizen over B40, M40 issue

The suit was filed by Vivy, 33, or her real name Vivy Sofinas Yusof through Messrs Foong Cheng Leong & Co on June 15, by naming Alia Najwa Hassannudin, 28, as the sole defendant.

Case management was fixed before High Court Judge Rohani Ismail today and as a result of the court's review, the next case management was set on Oct 7.

According to the statement of claim found in an e-filing search, Vivy, as the plaintiff, said on March 28 she had posted a video on her Instagram account, of a conversation between four entrepreneurs regarding COVID-19 economic impact and the Economic Stimulus Package announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Vivy claimed on March 30, the defendant had posted several statements regarding the plaintiff on the defendant's Facebook and Instagram account and wrongly said that the plaintiff had questioned the government's action in helping the B40 and M40 groups, despite not contributing to the country's economy.

The businesswoman claimed that the defamatory words, among others meant that the plaintiff did not sympathise with the B40 and M40 groups and was arrogant and selfish as well as being not professional, besides giving importance to profit alone.

Vivy said, the defamatory words also caused the launch of a petition on a website on April 1, to push for plaintiff's dismissal from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) board of directors, for insulting the said groups, and the petition have since been signed by over 230,000 Internet users.

She claimed that on April 2, the suit was issued to the defendant and demanded her to stop publishing any defamatory statements against the plaintiff on the social media, and alleged that the defendant had replied the suit through Facebook, however the reply failed to comply to all the plaintiff's demands.

As such the plaintiff is seeking general, aggravated and exemplary compensation, and an injunction for the defendant to delete the defamatory words besides requesting her to issue a statement of apology to the plaintiff.