Apr 24, 2023 07:00:00

A man who was displayed as 'pedophile' in Google's search results wins about 67 million yen in trial

In a trial in which a man in his early 70s living in Montreal, Canada was suing Google for having his career ruined by a label he didn't remember, the judge said $ 500,000 (about 67 million yen). Ordered Google to pay damages.

Man battling Google wins $500K for search result links calling him a pedophile | Ars Technica

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/04/man-battling-google-wins-500k-for-search-result-links-calling-him-a-pedophile/

Google ordered to pay Montrealer $500,000 for links to defamatory post | Montreal Gazette
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/google-ordered-to-pay-500000-to-montrealer-over-links-to-post-calling-him-pedophile

In 2007, the plaintiff man noticed that a website defaming him appeared in Google search results. The page described the man as a pedophile and stated that he had been accused of child abuse and had already been convicted.

The incident was unfamiliar to the man, and he enlisted the help of a friend to try to remove the description from the website. However, the website administrator refused to delete the post and said, 'Prove that you have never been charged with a crime.' Of course, it is not possible to prove that they did not do it, and Canada stipulates that ``regardless of when the victim saw the post, the lawsuit must be filed within one year of the appearance of the post.'' It turns out that it was already too late.

Therefore, the man at least asks Google to remove the link from the search results so that it does not appear in the Google search results. In 2009, the man's complaint was accepted, and Google took action to remove the link of the website in question from the search results. After it reappeared in search results in 2011, the man submitted two more removal requests, both of which were successful.

However, it turned out that it was displayed in the search results again in 2015. The man made another request for deletion, but Google refused this. This follows a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada on a separate issue of link publication, arguing that Google is under no obligation to remove the link.

Google's argument was that Google is an American company headquartered in California and incorporated under the laws of Delaware, so it was not obligated under American law to remove the link. In the United States,

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act stipulates that content providers are not held legally responsible for third-party postings. Quebec has a law that ``obligates companies to remove illegal content when they become aware of its existence,'' but Google claims that it is not held responsible under the US-Mexico-Canada agreement. bottom.

In the lawsuit, the man said the website ruined his career. The man, who claims that a potential client fled him and ruined his relationships, including that with his son, was awarded $6 million in punitive damages in addition to the damages. I was asking Google for payment.

The Supreme Court of Quebec, which received the lawsuit, said, ``While it is true under Quebec law that Google is not responsible for the content of linked sites, nor is it required to monitor that content, it promotes access to illegal content. We have a duty to deal with it when we find out that it is,' he said. Google has been ordered to pay $500,000 in damages for mental damage suffered by a man.

Google has also been ordered to remove all links to defamatory posts in search results available in Quebec. Although this trial stood on the plaintiff's side, the plaintiff calmly looks at the result, saying, ``This trial will not easily allow Google to delete the link.''