HK tycoon gets nod to sue Google for libel
Print Edition
A HONG Kong court has ruled that a local tycoon can sue Google Inc for defamation because searches for his name on Google suggest adding the word “triad,” the name of the city’s organized crime groups.
Searches in both English and Chinese for Albert Yeung Sau-shing, founder and chairman of Hong Kong-based Emperor Group, automatically suggest phrases related to organized crime using the search engine’s “auto complete” function.
On Tuesday, the High Court of Hong Kong dismissed Google’s argument that it was not responsible for the suggestions and that the court did not have jurisdiction over the US company.
Google frequently finds itself embroiled in legal issues over what results are shown by its search engine. The European Union’s top court in May ruled that people have a right to request that years-old personal information that is no longer relevant be removed from Internet search results.
“There is a good arguable case that Google Inc is the publisher of the words and liable for their publication,” said Marlene Ng, deputy high court judge, in her ruling.
The company declined to comment on the verdict.
Yeung is seeking damages from Google for libel and wants it to remove the defamatory search suggestions, court documents said.
Google argued that auto complete works according to an algorithm and that it is not responsible for the suggestions, which change depending on what a critical mass of users search for.
“The entire basis of the Internet will be compromised if search engines are required to audit what can be accessed,” court documents attributed Gerard McCoy, Google’s lawyer, as saying.
“It would be impossible for Google to manually interfere with or monitor the search processes given the billions of searches conducted,” the documents said.
Because Google did not protest that the suggestions were defamatory and have criminal associations, it might end up paying a large amount of money if Yeung sues successfully.
“In my view, it cannot be said at this stage that damages for reputational damage in Hong Kong are likely to be minimal if Yeung wins at trial,” Ng said.
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