Internet giants seek stay on order removing defamatory video

A decision that a defamatory YouTube video must be permanently removed from the internet should only be arrived at after a full trial, a High Court judge was told today.

Such a far reaching order should not be made at an injunction hearing but only after a full High Court case, Michael Howard SC for Google and YouTube said.

He was making submissions seeking a stay, pending appeal, on an injunction granted last month by Mr Justice Michael Peart requiring steps to be taken to permanently remove a video falsely accusing a student of taxi fare evasion.

The three internet giants want a stay on that order but the student opposes any stay.

Today, Pauline Walley SC, for the student, said the defendants were continuing to treat her client as just one of the other billion internet users and not someone whom the court had found was clearly defamed. The defendants were operating in a parallel universe whereby they will only take down the material where they consider it to be unacceptable, she said.

If a stay was granted, the word would go out it would be “open season” again on the student for all the lies, conjecture and damage to his reputation which had already been caused, she said.

Mr Justice Peart began hearing arguments yetserday from both sides on the stay application and will resume the hearing next week.

Google and YouTube, as worldwide companies, want to appeal Mr Justice Peart’s decision because it involved a legal principle of great significance to them, Mr Howard said.

The issues could be best addressed at a full trial, not after an injunction hearing which of its nature is more limited in scope, he said.

His clients had done everything to facilitate the removal of the defamatory material, including a facility which allows users to self delete, and this and other services would continue to be in place pending an appeal and while any stay is in place, counsel added.

Rossa Fanning, for Facebook, said the injunction was without precedent and would have devastating consequences for his client. The student wants to rid the internet of all the defamatory material but as the operator of only one website service, Facebook is not in a position to do that, he said.