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01 October 2009 / Veronica Bailey
Issue: 7387 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice
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Web of lies

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Veronica Bailey asks whether ISPs & search engines are liable for defamation on the internet

The decision in Metropolitan International Schools v Google ([2009] EWHC 1765 (QB), [2009] All ER (D) 263 (Jul) clarified the law on the liability of search engines and internet service providers (ISP’s) for defamation.

Eady J applied common law principles of defamation to the modern phenomenon of the internet to decide whether the operator of a search engine, Google, could be liable for publication.

Google finds information by automated means. It has no control over the search terms entered by its users or of the material which is placed on the world wide web. Eady J concluded that as there was no human intervention in the search function, Google was not liable as a publisher for the content found by the search.

Eady J followed his earlier decision in Blunt v Tilley [2006] IP & T 798 where he said that an ISP was not liable for defamatory content posted by individuals using its internet services. He concluded

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