Case Law, Australia: Google Inc v Duffy, Appeal court finds Google liable for publication of defamatory content of snippets and hyperlinked articles – Hugh Tomlinson QC

Source: inforrm.org --- Sunday, October 08, 2017
In an important judgment handed down on 4 October 2017 in the case of Google Inc v Duffy ( [2017] SASFC 130 [pdf]) the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Australia upheld the decision of Blue J ([2015] SASC 170 ) that Google Inc was liable for the defamatory content of the hyperlinks and paragraphs in search results on the claimant’s name (see our comment on the first instance decision). The Court was unanimous on the publication issues but Kourakis CJ dissented on the issue as to whether Google Inc had a “qualified privilege” defence. The Full Court dismissed Dr Duffy’s cross appeal against the judge’s award of Aus$100,000 damages ( [2015] SASC 206 ). We had a case comment on this judgment. Background The plaintiff, Dr Janice Duffy, had consulted a series of online psychics via a website called Kasamba. She later complained about some of them, including by posting reports and comments on a website called “Ripoff Report”. Dr Duffy also created a chat group on yahoo.com under the name “kasambavictims” and posted its internet address on the Ripoff Report website. A number of reports and comments were subsequently posted on the Ripoff Report website naming Dr Duffy and making allegations against her (“the Ripoff Report material”). Dr Duffy then became aware that searches for her name on Google’s search engines resulted in the display of extracts from and hyperlinks to the Ripoff Report material. She notified Google of the material ...

from Australia http://ift.tt/2hWs8GX