Google must pay a politician $515,000 for not taking down 'cyberbullying' and 'vulgar' videos about him, judge rules
Lisa Maree Williams - Pool/Getty Images
- Google must pay $515,000 to an Australian politician in a high-profile defamation case.
- John Barilaro sued the tech giant over two YouTube videos posted by a political commentator.
- A justice said that Google was complicit by refusing to take down the "vulgar" and "racist" videos.
Google has been ordered to pay $515,000 to an Australian politician for failing to remove two YouTube videos that a judge said had defamed him and "traumatized him significantly."
Federal Court Justice Stephen Rares ruled on Monday that the videos forced John Barilaro, the former deputy premiere of New South Wales, to end his political career prematurely and had subjected him to a "relentless and vicious" cyberbullying campaign, per The Sydney Morning Herald.
The videos in question were posted in 2020 by political commentator Jordan Shanks, a self-described comedian who runs the "Friendlyjordies" YouTube channel. Shanks published several videos about Barilaro, but the court focused on two in particular. The first video, titled "bruz," criticizes and makes fun of Barilaro for more than 26 minutes.
The second video, "Secret Dictatorship," mentions Barilaro in passing, per The Herald. While both videos were edited after Shanks apologized to Barilaro in a settlement last year and paid him $71,000 in damages, they are still available on YouTube.
In the videos, Shanks accused Barilaro of corruption, which the judge found to be false. Google itself had agreed that the YouTuber wrongfully suggested Barilaro committed crimes which included perjuring himself nine times; stealing money from his local government; and blackmailing local councillors, according to the court ruling.
Rares said Shanks had used racist and offensive words such as "greasy little scrotum" and "wog" to describe Barilaro, who is of Italian descent. According to court documents, Shanks compared Barilaro to Mario from the "Super Mario" video game franchise and said he was "powered by spaghetti."
"Of course, as a politician, Mr. Barilaro could expect many people in the community not to agree with his policies or to regard him well," Rares said in the ruling. "He could expect public criticism and condemnation for his political conduct and stances as part and parcel of being in political life, particularly in as publicly prominent a position as he had as Deputy Premier and a party leader."
"Hate-filled speech and vitriolic, constant public cyberbullying, however, cannot be classified as in any way acceptable means of communication in a democratic society governed by the rule of law," Rares continued.
By refusing to remove the videos in 2020, Google allowed the cyberbullying to proliferate, the judge said when delivering his ruling, according to The Guardian. "Google was part and parcel of this disgusting behavior because it facilitated, published, and kept up on YouTube this and similar videos."
Rares also said he would refer both Shanks and Google for possible contempt of court charges because of what he called "improper pressure" from one of Shanks' videos that almost pushed Barilaro to drop the case, per The Herald.
Barilaro fled a lawsuit against Google in May 2021, per court records.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Google initially defended itself in the case but later abandoned its arguments in the legal battle.
Barilaro served as deputy premiere of New South Wales during multiple crises, including a series of devastating bushfires in the Australian state, a mouse plague that overwhelmed entire farms, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
He resigned from politics in October, citing the defamation case as one of the reasons for his departure and saying that public life had "taken a toll."
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
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