The Australian Federal Court has ordered Google to pay the former Deputy Premier of New South Wales (NSW) John Barilaro $715,000 (US$513,000) over a “vindictive” social media campaign.
In the videos, Shanks allegedly said that Barilaro was a corrupt conman who committed perjury nine times, involved in blackmail and should be imprisoned.
Last November, Barilaro settled the case against Shanks, in which the former NSW Nationals leader withdrew his claim while Shanks provided an apology, edited the videos and promised to pay the other party $100,000 in legal costs.
On Google’s side, the tech giant initially defended the case but eventually withdrew the defences and acknowledged that the two Youtube videos vilified Barilaro.
On June 6, Federal Court Justice Steven Rares said Google failed to take action against hate speech, cyberbullying, and harassment in this case as Barilaro suffered from a relentless, racist and abusive Youtube campaign for more than a year.
Barilaro testified that he had previously planned to quit politics at the 2023 NSW election but had to leave public office in October 2021 after encountering attacks from people wearing bruz shirts during a by-election.
Justice Rares found that Shanks’ Youtube campaign traumatised Barilaro and prompted him to resign prematurely.
Furthermore, it was found that Shanks was involved in cyberbullying by trying to intimidate Barilaro and his lawyers to prevent them from bringing a court action against him.
