An Australian court on Monday ordered Google to pay a former lawmaker A$715,000 ($515,000). Saying its refusal to remove a YouTuber’s “relentless, racist, vilificatory, abusive and defamatory” videos drove him out of politics.
The Federal Court found the Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) company intentionally made money by hosting two videos on its YouTube website.
Australia is reviewing what legal exposure platforms should have for defamatory posts. “They (Google) were advised that those defamatory videos were there, they looked into it, they decided for themselves that they weren’t, and left them up,”
HATE SPEECH
The court heard that content creator Jordan Shanks uploaded videos in which he repeatedly brands lawmaker John Barilaro “corrupt”. Without citing credible evidence, and calls him names attacking his Italian heritage which the judge, Steve Rares, said amounted to “nothing less than hate speech”.
Barilaro told reporters outside the courthouse that he felt “cleared and vindicated”.
“It was never about money,” he said. “It was about an apology, removal. Of course, now an apology is worthless after the campaign has continued.
-Reuters.
