In a legal ruling likely to send a chill through the global social networking phenomenon of Facebook, a British businessman has been awarded £22,000 ($44,000, €28,000) in damages from a former school friend who created a fake profile of him on the website.

Mathew Firsht brought the landmark libel action after coming across a Facebook group titled “Has Mathew Firsht lied to you?” as well as a profile containing false claims about his sexuality, religion and political views.