The Federal Court has ordered Google to pay former deputy NSW premier, John Barilaro, $715,000 over attacks made against him in YouTube videos.
The courts considers the global media palftorm as a publisher which allowed defamatory and offensive attacks containing racist, hate speech and cyber-bullying material.
The two videos were bruz. and Secret Dictatorship uploaded in 2020 by YouTuber Friendlyjordies, a channel run by comedian Jordan Shanks.
The court heard Barilaro maintained that the videos said he was corrupt, had committed perjury, had engaged in the blackmailing of councillors and had pocketed millions of dollars stolen from the Narrandera Shire Council.
Late last year Barilaro and Shanks agreed to settle. Shanks changed the videos, made an apology and agreed to pay $100,000 of Barilaro’s costs.
Today Justice Steven Rares: "Google did not merely fail to apologise to Mr Barilaro. It deliberately continued to publish matters complained of and other videos, along with the associated denigratory comments posted on the YouTube platform, knowing of their defamatory content including Mr Shanks’ hate speech, racism and cyber bullying campaign.
"That added to Mr Barilaro’s hurt to feelings, public attacks on him and the injury to his reputation. Google chose to continue publishing Mr Shanks’ malicious, racist rants and false imputations conveyed in the matters complained of, rubbing salt into Mr Barilaro’s wounds."
Barilaro had received messages and been subject to social media posts repeating key lines from the videos, such as “stupid fat idiot”, “corrupt” or “corruption” and “greasy little scrotum”.
The judge: "The lines, as well as the posts and messages, were vitriolic and hateful. The posts, viewed in scale and context with the volume of similar communications on the same platform and their connection to Mr Shanks’ videos, amount objectively to harassment and cyber bullying of Mr Barilaro.
"These communications in their context, and as intended by Mr Shanks’ calls to arms in each video, bombard the platform. In the case of those media that were linked to, or are media accounts of, Mr Barilaro, the communications amount to a torrent of hectoring and bullying abuse.
"Politicians and those in public life must expect that their conduct and policies will be open to public scrutiny and criticism, including vehement disagreement.
"But that does not give critics, opponents or members of the public who disagree with the politician’s or public figure’s policies or are critical of his or her conduct or performance of their role, a licence to engage in a torrent of gratuitous racial slurring, stereotyping, name-calling, or threats of violence against not only the personal safety of that person, let alone his or her partner or children."
Google will also have to pay costs, to be determined.
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