Google is not liable for any purported defamation in its search results, the high court in London has just ruled, according to a news report by leading UK publication The Guardian. The Internet giant has won a landmark high court libel that makes crucial observations regarding forum comment in search results.
It is not liable for any comments appearing in news articles, forums and blogs displayed in its search results, a high court judge concluded in a significant ruling for UK defamation law. London’s Metropolitan International Schools (MIS) had brought the case against Google's UK and US operations. It launched legal action over comments, which appeared in Google search results through a website forum.
The company claimed Google as a publisher was liable. The latter responded it had no responsibility for of defamatory comments. Mr Justice Eady ruled in the high court that Google was not a 'publisher' of the content, but merely a 'facilitator'.
"When a snippet is thrown up on one's screen in response to a search, it points one in the direction of an entry on the web that corresponds - to a greater or lesser extent - to the search terms one has typed in," the judge said. "It's for him or (her) to access or not, as he (or she) chooses. And [Google] has merely, played the role of a facilitator, by the provision of its search service."
However, the judge did state that it has a responsibility of blocking or taking down content if it’s notified with a legitimate complaint about any libelous material. A lawyer at Pinsent Masons, Struan Robertson, remarked that this was probably the first judicial analysis of a search engine's liability for defamation under UK law. "It is a brilliant result for Google as well as other search engines," Robertson added.
"We're pleased with this result. It reinforces the principle that search engines are not responsible for content published on third-party websites," stated a spokesperson for Google.
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