Google warns court ruling will force it to censor the Internet
Google has asked the High Court of Australia to overturn a 2020 ruling that it claims will force it to censor content on the Internet, Engadget has reported.
The Victorian Court of Appeals previously rejected Google’s bid to have the ruling of the Victorian Supreme Court overturned in a defamation matter involving state lawyer George Defteros.
The court had found that Google’s search engine results defamed Defteros by linking to a 2004 article titled “Underworld loses valued friend at court” regarding charges brought against him for conspiracy to commit murder.
Google said its algorithm was sending search engine users to the article because the publication on which it appeared was regarded as a reliable news source.
It refused to remove it from its results, despite the charges against Defteros being dropped in 2005.
But the judge ruled the article had implied Defteros had been “cosy” with Melbourne’s criminal underground and ordered Google to pay $40,000 in damages for the hyperlink.
In its latest submission to the High Court, Google argues that a hyperlink was not itself the communication to which it linked.
Google said the 2020 ruling would make the company liable as the publisher of any matter placed on the web to which its search results provided a hyperlink.
The Internet giant contends that this would force it to act as a censor — excluding any webpage about which a complaint is made from its search results, even if a reputable source published it.
The application to the High Court is Google’s last option to appeal the ruling as this is Australia’s highest court.
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