A businessman has been awarded £22,000 in damages from a former school friend who created a fake profile of him on the Facebook website, in a ruling that is likely to send a chill through the global social networking community.

Mathew Firsht brought the landmark libel action against Grant Raphael after coming across a Facebook group entitled "Has Mathew Firsht lied to you?" and a profile of him that contained false claims about his sexuality, religion and political views.