Albert Yeung Sau-shing has been allowed by a Hong Kong court to sue Google for defamation. The chairman and founder of Emperor group, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate, is complaining that searches for his name on the top search engine suggests the word 'triad' to be added.
The word apparently refers to an organized crime group notorious in Hong Kong. Albert Yeung Sau-shing doesn't want his name associated with the group even in searches in Chinese and English using Google. Yeung's business empire includes an entertainment company that manages big celebrities in Hong Kong and is into producing films.
Google has an autocomplete function that automatically adds the word 'triad' to Albert Yeung Sau-shing's name. This could be an error but the businessman clearly wants it to be fixed and that he went to the deputy high court. Judge Marlene Ng said Google is liable for the issue.
"There is a good arguable case that Google Inc is the publisher of the Words and liable for their publication," Marlene Ng, the Hong Kong high court judge said.
Meanwhile, Google is silent on the issue but a Google lawyer, Gerard McCoy, was attributed in court documents.
"The entire basis of the internet will be compromised if search engines are required to audit what can be assessed by users using their search tools. It would be impossible for Google Inc. to manually interfere with or monitor the search processes given the billions of searches conducted by Google Search," McCoy said.
The search company did not protest that the suggestions were defamatory so it could be asked to pay Yeung a large amount once the lawsuit progresses.
Billionaire Yeung deems the search engine suggestions are defamatory and he is now seeking from Google damages for libel. He wants the suggestions to be removed immediately. He tried to get Google to delete the suggested terms but failed, so he's now filing a lawsuit.
This isn't the first time Google has been questioned about its search engine results. Earlier in May, the top court of the European Union ruled that people could request Google to delete personal information that is not relevant anymore.
