To be so upset people think we left without paying?

I’m sure this falls under UK defamation law, specifically false innuendo

Quote the Defamation Act 2013. The law means even if the words themselves don’t directly name the person, the context or placement of an image can cause a reasonable reader to think the statement applies to them.

Applies to FB posts just as much as newspapers

Threaten them with legal action.
Leave a negative review on trip adviser.
Get your family and friends to BOMBARD the post with messages saying how appalling it is that you’ve been dragged into this.
this is awful, I’d be furious.

So I could make a post on Facebook with a photo of you saying ’belly dancer for hire. £12.50 an hour will travel an hour and a half from The Wirral, customers must provide their own music or let us know in advance and we will send a banjo player, please note that Suzanne seen in this photo will not be the dancer who attends, if it is a birthday we can also provide a cake in a variety of flavours including pistachio.

I do think any business needs to be very careful when putting anything on social media - or even just a picture in the window - when it comes to things such as shoplifting, dine and dash etc

Because there is always the chance they get it wrong - and that can have real repercussions for innocent people.

You might not even know that a business has posted your image in its site, publicly accusing you of theft.

I doubt the police will be any use at all, will tell you it's a civil case. I'd start your own separate post with a picture of your receipt saying that the restaurant owner knows that you paid at the time of the party but by posting your pictures with the people who left they have defamed you and are refusing to take the picture down. People dont read comments, they will read your post.

Sue the bastards. Potentially £75K in it for you! Sadly people don't forget these things, even when you prove your innocence.

Fight fire with fire:

I assume this pub is local to you from your post. I would make a point of going there and demanding (loudly) that your family’s faces are blurred. Take the receipt with you and wave it around.
Say that you will be back each evening unless they edit the post to blur your family’s faces and change the initial comment, saying (in capitals) that the family with blurred faces are not involved. Also say that you have provided proof and would be very grateful if the customers who have seen your could post that you have paid.

They could potentially ban you but the publicity would be very negative for them. Point out that you will contact local press if they don’t comply (be ready with your Daily Fail sad faces).

You could also threaten to sit outside the pub (parked on a public road) with a sign in the window of your car stating the above - as you won’t be on their premises and are not saying anything untrue they won’t be able to do a thing about it.

Certainly don’t bother with the police - it’s not a criminal matter it’s civil.

Not if it's buried in text where it won't easily be seen by everyone viewing the post. They might be covered if they had put it in large letters right underneath the picture, but they didn't.

Information Commissioner? They can levy eye-watering fines.

Exactly this.

Libel can be committed through negligence. If a person looking at the picture could reasonably assume OP and family were the subject of the reputationally damaging claim by the landlord, that is libel. You don’t even need to be named. Just identifiable. And Intent is neither here nor there. A small clarification buried in a wall of text is arguably not sufficient. Lawyers and editors argue about this stuff all the time in the media. I am libel trained. I have seen letters before action.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgny7epgvpo.amp

Google reviews or trust pilot usually trigger a response for better service. They will be falling over themselves. Terrible that you've asked and they refused. So they lost the payment from two customers but now 20! Poor choices.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/report-a-breach/personal-data-breach/personal-data-breaches-a-guide/

Regardless

If it has affected your reputation.

And you've got proof of the messages people are sending you and are posting about you.

I'm sure you could sue them.

Sign post the owner to the news article people have shared.

Might make them pay more attention

I'm not a lawyer, but I believe unintended libel is still a thing. Not meaning to do something doesn't mean you haven't done it. OP, her child, and the rest of the party are being accused of theft because of the pub's pictorial actions. They've been libelled.

See also, pic of underage child, and misuse of CCTV images/GDPR.

The pub wouldn’t be ‘covered’ at all as they’ve posted pictures of children without the parent’s permission

There was a news story about similar in the news. But the people had paid.

So they sued the restaurant and got thousands in compensation.

Would this be an option for you?

I agree. The pub would be covered because they said that the people on the table were not involved. Still a shitty thing for them to do though. Pic should have been edited.

Is this post on a local group or the pub’s own facebook page?

Post a photo of your recept for payment on the Facebook page and id comment about how this restaurant has lost good customers who not only paid but left a 15 percent tip because they published the photo with headline about people not paying. Clearly state you will never use this restaurant again and set out owner refusing to blur your faces or make it clearer your family did pay. Label it something like how to lose good customers

Most of these responses are pointless, they've said in the post that OP's are not the people who didn't pay. Yeah the photos shouldn't have been published and should be removed, but the only people accusing the OP are people who can't read properly

You have, ironically, got the wrong end of a one-ended stick!

It would be easy enough to edit the post. Just need to crop the photo down and delete the full photo posted. Then add the edited photo.

Be careful. You dont know if the other party actually paid. If you show them and they did pay, you could ironically find yourself being done for libel! Appreciate unlikely...