Google says it will have to censor search results if court ruling isn't overturned

Google said the ruling would have a devastating impact on the internet

Google has appealed to the High Court in Australia to overturn a decision awarded against it in 2020. The company says that the ruling could have a "devastating" impact on the internet, if the court holds the company liable for defamatory material hyperlinked in search results.

George Defertos, a Victorian state lawyer whose clientele included individuals involved in the Melbourne gangland killings, contacted Google in 2016, asking it to remove an article published by The Age in 2004 from its search results.

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The article in question contained reporting on allegations against Defertos, that were later dropped in 2005. Google refused, on grounds that it viewed The Age as a reputable source.

The matter was then dragged into court, with Defertos successfully winning the appeal, on grounds that the article linked in the search results had defamed him.

According to The Guardian, Victorian Supreme Court justice Melinda Richards had ruled that the article implied Defertos was friends with the individuals involved in the gangland murders.

Google's lawyers argued that Defertos had incorrectly claimed that he had sued The Age for defamation, and the publication had decided to remove the article. It also warned that if the ruling is allowed to stand, it would be, "liable as the publisher of any matter published on the web to which its search results provide a hyperlink.”

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It also said that as a search engine, it wasn't liable to be held in contempt, since it was not the publisher of the material.

“A hyperlink is not, in and of itself, the communication of that to which it links," said Google. It further added that it should only be liable if the hyperlink, "repeats the defamatory imputation to which it links."

Google said that if liable, then it would be forced to censor search results and exclude any webpage that receive complaints, even if they might be of legitimate interest.