Google loses defamation appeal

In a landmark case, Google lost its appeal of an Australian court decision that states that it defamed Dr Janice Duffy by ‘publishing defamatory material about her in its search results’ (see Google Inc v Duffy [2017] SASCFC 130). The case was originally decided in 2015 and said to have serious repercussions for the Internet. The current decision is based on whether Google is a publisher or secondary publisher, and focuses on the publishing of snippets of the content in addition to relevant URLs. A 2009 case found Google not liable as publisher of defamatory statements, concerning an online course discussion thread.