A court in Canada ordered Google to pay $370,000 in defamation damage to a businessman after the search results falsely accused him of child molestation.
The story begins in April 2007 when a so-called “prominent businessman” noticed that some clients refused to do business with him for no obvious reason. He later decided to search his name in Google and see what was happening. The businessman found that a website called RipoffReport accused him of a conviction for child molestation in 1984.
Despite the man’s request to delete the report, the website owner refused and asked him to provide evidence to prove his innocence. Now, judge Azimuddin Hussain in Quebec Supreme Court ordered Google to pay CAD 500,000 – approximately $370,000 in U.S. Dollars – to the businessman for damage to his reputation.
Google to pay $500,000 to a Canadian man as compensation for defamation damage
The judge argues that Google misunderstood Canadian law when it was asked to delete the results from its search history. According to Canadian law, a victim of a false online accusation must file a lawsuit within one year of seeing the allegations.
The businessman, instead, first asked Google to remove the article. However, the company refused to remove the link, citing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in the U.S. This section exempts companies like Google from being responsible for third-party content.
“Google variously ignored the Plaintiff, told him it could do nothing, told him it could remove the hyperlink on the Canadian version of its search engine but not the U.S. one, but then allowed it to re-appear on the Canadian version after a 2011 judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada in an unrelated matter involving the publication of hyperlinks.” The judge wrote in his verdict.
Google also cited the Canada-United States-Mexico free trade agreement and argued that the Quebec law conflicts with Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act. The company is ultimately forced to pay $370,000, and it was lucky that the judge refused the plaintiff’s request for $6 million in punitive damages.
Judge Hussain described the case as a “waking nightmare” for the plaintiff while adding that Google acted in good faith when it refused to delete the report. Finally, Google should remove all links to defamatory post in search results in Quebec.