United Kingdom Appeal Court Rules Google Must Promptly Remove Problematic Blogger Posts
February 19, 2013
It looks like Google must now become Mother Google. Overturning a previous finding by the high court, a U.K. court of appeals holds Google Blogger responsible for rapidly removing defamatory blog posts by third parties, we learn in the Guardian’s story, “Google Must Act Quickly on Libellous Blogger Posts, Says Appeal Court.”
The case began, perhaps not surprisingly, with a politician (Payam Tamiz)who didn’t like some things someone wrote about him. While some of those nasty assertions were, indeed, untrue, it should be remembered that it was not anyone at Google itself who wrote them. The first judge made a ruling consistent with my don’t-shoot-the-messenger viewpoint; writer Lisa O’Carroll reveals:
“Eady ruled that no libel action could be heard because Google could not be deemed to be a publisher in its own right.
“Eady said Google’s responsibility for online slurs was no more than that of an ‘unfortunate owner’ of a wall ‘festooned with defamatory graffiti’.”
Sir Eady also indicated that the five weeks it took Google to remove the offending post after Tamiz complained was not unreasonable. This latest appeal ruling disagrees with that assessment, and insists the company must respond more quickly to such complaints. However, neither Tamiz nor Google walked away completely happy. We learn:
“However in making his ruling the master of the rolls, Lord Justice Richards, took the decision to side with the high court and refuse the overall appeal of the original libel action in the high court because of lack of evidence about how many people had read the offending blog comments.”
Well, that’s the Internet for you. A Google representative said the company would “continue to operate within the law,” removing content that is illegal or violates the terms of service. But will they be able to do so fast enough, especially as their blog platform continues to grow? More trouble could be on the horizon.
Cynthia Murrell, February 19, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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