Google has been ordered to pay a former politician A$715,000 ($515,000) in damages, after an Australian court ruled that the company intentionally profited from hosting videos on its YouTube platform which were defamatory.
Former deputy premier of New South Wales John Barilaro was the subject of numerous videos uploaded by content creator Jordan Shanks, in which Shanks accused the lawmaker of being corrupt. Prosecutors described the YouTuber’s campaign as “relentless, racist, vilificatory, abusive and defamatory”.
Ruling on the case, Judge Steve Rares said that the claims in Shanks’ videos were not backed up by any credible evidence, and were defamatory. Comments from the videomaker using slurs against Barilaro’s Italian heritage were described by the judge as “nothing less than hate speech”.
In failing to remove two videos uploaded by Shanks, Google themselves were liable for defamation against Mr Barilaro, Rares ruled.
The ruling reignites the debate in Australia over technology firms’ responsibility for the content posted to their platforms. A 2021 ruling in the country saw a number of global brands ditch or scale back their social media presence in the country, after a newspaper was found liable for defamatory comments made by a website user.
In his ruling though, Rares stressed that Google’s actions were in breach of their own policies aimed at protecting public figures, and that this failure had led Barilaro to quit politics.
“Google cannot escape its liability for the substantial damage that Mr Shanks’ campaign caused,” the judge said.