The Federal Court of Australia has found Google as complicit in a string of defamatory videos hosted on YouTube targeting former New South Wales deputy premier John Barilaro. With the ruling, Google must now pay Barilaro A$715,000 ($515,000) in compensation for refusing to remove said videos and making money one the content through its video hosting platform YouTube.
The videos in question, created and published by Jordan Shanks, were "relentless, racist, villificatory, abusive and defamatory," according to the Federal Court filing and are directly responsible for Barilaro's early retirement from politics in late 2021. Shanks' string of content, two videos of which exist as evidence within the case, posits Barilaro as "corrupt" despite no evidence pointing to such allegations, while likewise targeting the politician's Italian heritage.
Australian Federal Court Judge Steve Rares coined the content "nothing less than hate speech." Still the videos were allowed on Google's platform, supposedly even after the tech giant looked into various complaints surrounding the YouTuber's content, citing it as the opposite of slander. Rares considered an outrageous offense, citing that "Google cannot escape its liability for the substantial damage that Mr. Shanks' campaign caused."
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YouTube has not one but two different internal sites dedicated to understanding its community policies surrounding hate speech and harassment in user-created content. Most of it seems to define the differences between the two, but of major importance here is that YouTube will "remove content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on any of the following attributes," one of which being Nationality.
While there doesn't seem to be any specific community guidelines on how YouTube approaches such defamatory content that has zero evidence, as Sharks' videos proved very little in amply showcasing how Barliaro was "corrupt," there are harassment policies surrounding bullying, as well as highly important "Misinformation policies."
Shanks himself was a co-defendant in the case until a settlement was made last year with Barilaro, wherein the content creator was required to pay A$100,000 to the politician in addition to editing his videos. With nearly 625,000 YouTube subscribers on top of a 346,000 follower count on Facebook, Shanks' claims were especially dangerous given their unfounded and ethnically driven nature.
On Facebook, Shanks, going by username "friendlyjordies," expressed more such defamatory claims and bullying in a post that reads, "you finally scored the coin from Google...without ever having the truth tested in court." He went on to add that the politician "withdrew (his) action against us so we wouldn't testify or present our evidence" supposedly in support of his content's various claims.
Judge Rares explained in a statement that the YouTuber "needed YouTube to disseminate his poison (and) Google was willing to join Mr. Shanks in doing so to earn revenue as part of its business model." Australia has been at the heart of a new profound legal movement in internet culture, more specifically targeting how websites allow users to convey defamatory considerations through their platforms.
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Written by Ryan Epps
