POSTED BY Natasha Meserve
Recently, Google, the famous search engine, has dealt with international issues, notably with its Autocomplete feature. This serious issue might potentially hold Google accountable for libel lawsuits regarding certain companies and people. More specifically, ones that are searched for and have certain potentially libelous words associated with its name. Google’s Autocomplete feature is comprised of a computer algorithm that predicts text in the search engine by how frequently that term is used by the user. One main factor in determining what suggestions pop up on the Autocomplete are terms that are made popular by people and the amount of times the word or phrase is searched. Further, there is a popularity factor in searches, if something is newly trending or extremely popular then it will also show up in the autocomplete.
However, to combat new issues of what phrases and words show up in a search, Google has released a statement saying they filter suggestions that are against its policies and guidelines. Regardless of these attempts to filter hate speech and bad affiliations with certain names; Google has been involved in a few international libel cases regarding their predictor terms and foreign companies.
For example, in few recent cases in Germany, Hong Kong and Italy, the courts have had libel issues concerning certain keywords that come up as the Autocomplete feature attempts to figure out what the person is searching for. In Italy, a plaintiff brought action against Google for libelous words featured next to his name when he was googled, such as “con man” and “fraud.” This potentially had a lot of problems for him and his business. The court ordered Google to filter the Autocomplete search predictions because they found them to be libelous. Similarly, in France, a man won against Google for having the word “rapist” appear next to his name. Most recently, Google lost in Germany for defamatory statements against the plaintiff. These are issues that can be hard to control and fix because it is simply a matter of what people search in a particular country, an algorithm determines what will show up on the search engine. Therefore, the libel cases cannot be held against the company for what the trend is around them.
It seems as though Google will run into more potential libel suits in the future, being one of the most used search engines in the world. It seems that it would be difficult to hold Google accountable for what people are searching on their site in every country since the computer algorithm controls the search predictors to determine what is popular or not. However, Google and its engineers have created the algorithm, it is considered part of the company’s product. Therefore, it should be held responsible for what appears in its search engines. For instance, international courts held Google responsible for libel suits in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, in Europe, it appears that Google will be held accountable for what appears in its search engines and how it affects the name and privacy of individuals and businesses. A precedent has been set, and Google will need to adjust or filter its Autocomplete results in certain countries or endure more lawsuits in the future from companies and individuals.
Bio: Natasha is a Staff Member of the Journal of High Technology Law. She is currently a 2L at Suffolk Law with an interest in Health and Biomedical Law. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and minor in Biology and English from the University of Louisville, Kentucky.
