Google links Australian music promoter to criminal underworld
Google links Australian music promoter to criminal underworld
Occurred: November 2012
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Google's search systems were accused of unfairly linking an Australian music promoter with Australia's criminal underworld, prompting a lengthy court battle and a debate over liability.
In 2012, 62-year-old Milorad ('Michael') Trkulja sent a letter to Google demanding removal of allegedly defamatory images and links on its search engine and Autocomplete search prediction feature that implied he was associated with various convicted criminals in Melbourne.
Google initially refused, arguing it was not a publisher and that it was simply pointing to material published by third-parties.
β 2013. Google removed links to some websites and blocked a number of Autocomplete predictions and search queries relating to Mr Trkulja. However, it declined to remove images of Mr Trkulja being indexed by its systems.
β 2014. Trkulja sued Google for indexing 'grossly defamatory content'. Specifically, the suit claimed that the technology company's search engine unfairly displayed images of him alongside those of known criminals, including a well-known drug dealer, when users searched for terms like "Melbourne criminals" and "Melbourne criminal underworld figure". The suit also requested Google and Yahoo! to remove the offending content from their search engines.
β December 2016. The Supreme Court of Victoria denied Google's application for summary dismissal.
β June 2018. The High Court of Australia ruled that Google was liable for defamation due to its search results. The court found that the images and Autocomplete predictions could create defamatory implications for Trkulja in the eyes of ordinary users. Notably, Autocomplete suggestions included phrases such as "michael trkulja criminal" and "michael trkulja melbourne crime," which were seen to further solidify the perceived connection to criminality.
Autocomplete
Autocomplete, or word completion, is a feature in which an application predicts the rest of a word a user is typing. In Android and iOS smartphones, this is called predictive text.Β
Source: Wikipedia π
Operator: Alphabet/Google
Developer: Alphabet/Google
Country: Australia
Sector: Media/entertainment/sports/arts
Purpose: Predict search results
Technology: NLP/text analysis; Deep learning; Machine learning
Issue: Accountability; Accuracy/reliabilty; Mis/disinformation
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2012/nov/26/google-defamation-libel-australia
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5837873/Australian-man-shot-SUE-Google-defamation.html
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-13/milorad-trkulja-sues-google-for-defamation/9863686
https://www.theverge.com/2012/11/12/3634790/google-australia-defamation-lawsuit-milorad-trkulja
https://theconversation.com/protecting-google-from-defamation-is-worth-seriously-considering-98252
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Type: Incident
Published: March 2023
Last updated: September 2024