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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, November 29 2012 @ 06:31 AM EST |
It is not Google's job to suppress even falsehoods on the net, let
alone truth.
Google shouldn't take down MY website just because YOU (or some
third world
tinpot dictator) thinks it offensive to your (or his)
dignity.
It actually is if they're challenged on something under
defamation law in Australia. Relaying something someone else posted is *not* a
defence either, but the statements being true is (there's a whole bunch of
others that probably aren't relevant in this situation). Basically it has to be
untrue, damaging, published (publically), identifiable (eg not anonymous) and
presented as fact (not opinion) to be a defamation issue. For example, the
completely hypothetical statement "this guy is just exploiting a dumb law to get
a paycheck" is defamatory, whereas "I think this guy is exploiting a dumb law to
get a paycheck" is safer (companies/rich individuals will still probably drag
you through court over the latter, but they'll almost certainly lose).
Now I
don't want to defend our defamation laws - they're generally acknowledged to be
a problem, but saying it's not Google's job to obey the law in countries
it operates in strikes me as a dangerous position. Some laws are stupid - this
is one, but I'm not sure a world where corporate America dictates law (anymore
than it does already!) would be a better one.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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