Sean Fewster reports:
A former SA Health researcher has won a six-year legal battle against Google, proving she was defamed by the internet giant due to the way it auto-completed search terms.
In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court on Tuesday found Google published defamatory imputations about Dr Janice Duffy “to a substantial number of people”.
Justice Malcolm Blue said the search company’s auto-complete results either published, republished or directed users toward comments harmful to her reputation.
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Great thanks to Leanne O’Donnell who tweeted out a link to the court’s opinion and who notes that there was a similar ruling in Victoria in 2012. Leanne notes that Google can appeal this newest ruling to the full court, but that there’s some question as to whether Google will appeal. Frankly, I can’t imagine them not trying to appeal this, as these types of rulings open the floodgates to link removal demands based on claims of defamatory material.