Globes exclusive: In an unprecedented move, Google has agreed to supply the IP address of an Israeli blogger who used “Google Blogger” for a blog in which he slandered Shaarei Tikva council members running for reelection. The election is being held today. So far as is known, this is the first time that Google forewent legal action in such a case.
The slandered Shaarei Tikva council members asked Google for the blogger’s name. They reached a settlement with the company on the basis of an Israeli ruling on the subject. The settlement stipulates that 72 hours before a hearing on the case at the Rishon LeZion Magistrates Court, the council members would leave the blogger a message on his blog summoning him to the hearing, or else his IP address would be handed over. The notice would invite the blogger to disclose his identity, participate in the hearing, or oppose the disclosure of his identity by filing a motion as “anonymous”.
For more than a year, the anonymous blogger slandered three Shaarei Tikva councilmen. The blogger accused the men of criminal acts, such as pretending to be handicapped in order to receive discounts on local property taxes, receiving bribes from a contractor, and having ties to criminal gangs.
The three councilmen filed a NIS 300,000 lawsuit against the blogger, who was named “anonymous” in the statement of claim. They also asked for a court order ordering Google to disclose the blogger’s IP address, which would enable the court to contact the blogger’s Internet services provider and order it to disclose the blogger’s identity.
Google initially said that disclosing the blogger’s identity violated rulings on the balance between freedom of expression and a person’s right to his reputation.
However, in a pre-ruling, Judge Oren Schwartz said that the blog’s content raised suspicions of criminal conduct, and Google took the hint. Judge Schwartz applied the strict position of Tel Aviv District Court Judge Michal Agmon that the details of a surfer may be disclosed only if the slander was tantamount to criminal libel.
(Globes / Jameel Muqata)
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6 Responses
I don’t get why they guy had to come to court. Big deal he exposed them (if the allegations are true). What did he legally do wrong ?
“forewent”
Very poor use of the word!
buzbuz and if the accusations are false? from a secular point of view do the laws of slander and libel mean anything to you? and… more importantly from a Halachic point of view, do the laws of Loshon Hara mean anything to you? being anonymous does not exempt one from Halacha.
#1 He has to go to court because they are suing him. It’s not a criminal case yet.
Oops! I didn’t realize your article was quoting the Globes verbatim.
Nevertheless, Google was not the one taking “legal action”; rather, they were avoiding having legal action by the council which would have required a legal defense.
This is sctually groundbreaking news.
1) That google submitted to the jurisdiction of an Israeli court.
2) That the injured party did not have to show specific injury as in American cases of such nature.
3) That this was all done without legal action.
For example: In the case where Mordechai Tendler sued Google in (Santa Clara County Superior court 1-06-CV-064307) to find the identity of four anonymous bloggers that allegedly damaged him, he immediately dropped his lawsuit when the attorneys for the anonymous bloggers stated that he had not given one single example of a comment that had caused injury to him, nor how he was injured. Realizing the case had no merit he dropped the suit, but to late for the judge found him liable for defendants attorneys fees under the SLAPP statute which views such lawsuits as an intimidative attack on freedom of speech.
YWN gives me a hard time with URLs, go to the santa clara county superior court website and enter the above court case or “Tendler” in the search engine.