Google Not Liable for Links to Defamatory Content, Top Australian Court Rules

SYDNEY—Australia’s highest court docket dominated that Alphabet Google isn’t liable for defamatory content material that may be accessed by way of a hyperlink in its search outcomes, a win for Google in a jurisdiction that has at occasions taken a hard line against tech platforms.

The case concerned a lawyer, George Defteros, who alleged {that a} Google search of his identify returned a hyperlink to and a snippet of a newspaper article that was defamatory. Lower courts discovered that the article implied Mr. Defteros had grow to be a pal of prison parts, and that Google might be thought-about a writer of the article as a result of the search end result was essential to speaking its contents to finish customers, court docket paperwork mentioned. Google was ordered to pay damages of 40,000 Australian {dollars}, equal to $28,100.