Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Google Dumped a Webpage Falsey Claimed to be AntiSemitic

JEWWATCH.COM went up in 1997 comprised of news articles which revealed the truth that the Russian Revolution was an extermination of 65 million white Christian Russians perpetrated by Jews. This knowledge was formerly hidden by the iron curtain. The site became number one in Google's search engine whenever ''jew'' was typed into the search engine. The Jews put pressure on Google to take the website out of number one position. Af first Google refused. Then, after receiving 50,000 signatures form Jews, Google took the site from number one position to number 40. Does the owner of the website have a cause of action against Google?


Asked on 5/04/04, 12:02 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Timothy J. Walton Internet Attorney

Re: Google Dumped a Webpage Falsey Claimed to be AntiSemitic

As a private company, Google is generally allowed to make its own search criteria, and it can change its criteria at any time. While some have sued, I am not aware of anyone who got a court to agree that a search engine should pay damages to someone whose site ranked badly, even when the evidence showed that the plaintiff lost money when its ranking fell significantly.

If someone made a statement that was untrue, there could be a cause of action for defamation. I am unsure what statement you might consider to be untrue.

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Answered on 5/04/04, 12:55 pm


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