Google sued by Hong Kong-based banker over extreme internet trolling
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 25 November, 2014, 12:24pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 26 November, 2014, 3:18am
The Guardian
Daniel Hegglin's case is separate from the European Court of Justice's "right to be forgotten" ruling, which allows people in 32 European countries to ask Google to delete material that unfairly tarnishes their reputation. Photo: SCMP
Google has agreed to a settlement with a Hong Kong-based businessman who sued the search engine firm over defamatory internet posts that were circulated across some 3,600 websites.
Daniel Hegglin, a former Morgan Stanley banker, went to Britain's High Court to force Google to ensure posts falsely labelling him a murderer, paedophile and Nazi did not appear in search results in what was described by lawyers as an extreme example of internet trolling.
Settlement of what would have been a test case defining the US firm's global responsibilities was announced at the High Court in London on Monday.
Details of the settlement were not revealed but an agreed statement was read out in court.
"The settlement includes significant efforts on Google's part to remove the abusive material from Google-hosted websites and from its search results," said Hegglin's barrister, Hugh Tomlinson QC.
"Mr Hegglin will now concentrate his energies on bringing the persons responsible for this campaign of harassment to justice."
On behalf of Google, Anthony White QC said: "Google provides search services to millions of people and cannot be responsible for policing internet content. It will, however, continue to apply its procedures that have been developed to assist with the removal of content which breaches local applicable laws."
A Google spokesperson said: "We have reached a mutually acceptable agreement," but declined to comment further.
Google had requested that Hegglin submit links to the relevant pages to have them removed from search results under its "right to be forgotten" system. But Tomlinson said Hegglin's case did not fall under that system. "It's about the circulation of abusive material," he said.
Hegglin, who became aware of the abuse in 2011, says there are more than 3,600 websites containing untrue material about him. He claims to have already submitted a list of links to Google, but that more have appeared, turning it into a "game of whack-a-mole".
Hegglin, who was previously based in London, claims that while Google did not produce the material, it had propagated it through the search engine.
A woman who answered the phone yesterday at an address on The Peak listed to a "Daniel Robert Hegglin" said he was away.
Hegglin sought a British court order to force Google to take steps to prevent the posts appearing in searches made in England and Wales.
The "right to be forgotten" system allows people to apply to have outdated material about them removed from search results.
Additional reporting by Associated Press and Lana Lam
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