Australian Court Fines Google IDR 7.4 Billion For Facilitating Racist And Defamation Campaigns Without Evidence

John Barilaro became the victim of a racist and slanderous campaign on YouTube. (photo: twitter @_JohnBarilaroMP)

JAKARTA - An Australian court on Monday, June 6 ordered Google to pay a former member of parliament AUSD 715.000 (IDR 7.4 billion). This fine is because they failed to remove a video that the YouTuber called “relentless, racist, defamatory, abusive and defamatory campaigning” videos that kept him out of politics.

A Federal Court found Alphabet Inc, parent of Google, which owns content-sharing site YouTube, made money by broadcasting two videos attacking the deputy prime minister of New South Wales, which is known as Australia's most populous state. The video itself has been viewed nearly 800.000 times since it was posted in late 2020.

Previously, Google was found guilty of defamation by providing links to articles in search results. But Monday's ruling is one of the first in which the company is considered an active publisher, via YouTube, for content that defames elected officials.

In Australia, a review of defamation laws is also examining whether online platforms should be held responsible for the defamatory content they host. Google and other internet giants argue that they cannot be expected to monitor all posts from users.

The court heard that content creator Jordan Shanks uploaded a video in which he repeatedly called lawmaker John Barilaro "corrupt" without citing credible evidence. He even called him and attacked his Italian heritage which the judge, Steve Rares, said amounted to "hate speech."

By continuing to publish that content, Google violated its own policy of protecting public figures from being unfairly targeted and "untimely expelled Mr Barilaro from his service of choice in public life and traumatized him significantly," Rares said, as quoted by Reuters.

Barilaro was forced to quit politics a year after Shanks posted the video. "Google cannot escape its responsibility for the substantial damage caused by Mr Shanks' campaign," Rares added.

Shanks, who has 625.000 YouTube subscribers and 346.000 followers on Facebook, was a co-defendant until a settlement with Barilaro last year that involved a YouTuber editing a video and paying the former politician $100.000.

But Shanks "needed YouTube to spread his "poison" (and) Google was willing to join Shanks for revenue generation as part of his business model," the judge said.

Before the lawsuit was settled, Shanks continued to publicly attack Barilaro and his lawyers. The judge said he would sue Shanks and Google to the authorities "for what appears to be a serious contempt of court by applying inappropriate pressure during this procession".

In a Facebook post following the verdict, Shanks, who used the handle friendlyjordies, mocked Barilaro saying "you ended up minting a coin from Google... without ever being verified in court".

Shanks added, without evidence, that Barilaro "retracted his actions against us so that we will not testify or provide our evidence" to support his claims.

Barilaro told reporters outside the courthouse that he felt "clean and justified".

"It's never been about money," Barilaro said. "It's about apologies, deletions. Of course, now apologies are useless after the campaign continues. It was taken by the courts to force Google's hand."