The French Data Protection Agency, CNIL, is currently before a French court, arguing that Google needs to do more to comply with “Right to Be Forgotten” or “Right to Be Delisted” (RTBD) laws. The EU’s highest court, the CJEU, defined the search engine’s obligations in the 2014 Google Spain v. Costeja case, ruling that Google must comply with requests to remove links from the results it displays when people search for the requester by name. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Tag: Google (Page 6 of 11)
It is now just over two years since the Court of Justice of the European Union first ruled that Google was a data controller and that the principles of EU Directive 95/46/EC (‘the Data Protection Directive’), and the various national legislation that implement them, applied to its search results. Continue reading
On 23 December 2015, Mr Justice Blue awarded general damages of Aus$100,000 for libel against Google Inc to Dr Janice Duffy ([2015] SASC 206). This decision followed the same Judge’s ruling in October 2015 that Google was liable for the defamatory content of hyperlinks and snippets referring to the plaintiff (see the Inforrm post on this decision). Continue reading
In Richardson v Facebook [2015] EWHC 3154 (QB) Mr Justice Warby dismissed the claimant’s appeals in two separate but similar claims for defamation and breach of Article 8 ECHR. One claim was brought against ‘Facebook’ and the other against Google UK Ltd. Continue reading
On 27 October 2015 Mr Justice Blue, sitting at first instance in the Supreme Court of South Australia, handed down judgment on liability in the defamation case of Duffy v Google Inc ([2015] SASC 170). He held Google Inc liable for the defamatory content of the hyperlinks and snippets returned by way of Google search results on the Claimant’s name and for the defamatory content of search autocompletes relating to her. Perhaps more controversially, Google was also held liable as a republisher of the defamatory content of third party websites hyperlinked on its search results. Continue reading
One of the most impactful events in global free expression jurisprudence development in 2014 was the the European Court of Justice Google Spain SL, Google v Agencia Espanola de Proteccion (2014) (“González”) decision by on the so-called “right to be forgotten”, more accurately referred to as the “right to be de-indexed”. Continue reading
The UK Supreme Court has today granted Google partial permission to appeal in the Vidal-Hall case. The permission covers the data protection issues but not the issue as to whether misuse of private information is a tort. On this last issue the decision of the Court of Appeal ([2015] EWCA Civ 311) stands. Misuse of private information is now clearly established as a tort and the claims can proceed against Google regardless of the result of the data protection appeal. Continue reading
In the case of Niemela v Google (2015 BCSC 1024) the Supreme Court of British Columbia dismissed a claim for a worldwide interim libel injunction against Google by a Vancouver lawyer who had been subject to online abuse by someone he alleged to have been a former client. The Judge entered summary judgment for Google on the whole action. Continue reading
On 11 June 2015, the Court of Appeal for British Columbia handed down judgment in the controversial case of Equuestek Solutions v Google Inc (2015 BCCA 265) dismissing Google’s appeal against a worldwide injunction ordering it to remove websites from search results (2014 BCSC 1063). The interim injunction therefore remains in place. Continue reading
We all use search engines on a daily basis and Google et al appear to be coming under increasing fire from all sides in terms of the content they return in their listings for people and businesses. Libel claimants assume the world has seen the defamatory accusations of their opponents online, often through Google, but quantifying the impact – generically or specifically – has often been difficult. Continue reading
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