There are calls to strengthen laws around the responsibility of social media giants to manage defamatory content posted to their sites. 

Google has been ordered to pay former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro more than $700,000 over a series of videos published to YouTube by political commentator Jordan Shanks.

Known online as friendlyjordies, Mr Shanks accused Mr Barilaro of corruption and environmental vandalism, which led the former deputy premier to launch defamation proceedings against the commentator and YouTube’s owner, Google.

The lawsuit against friendlyjordies was ultimately settled on November 5, 2021, with Mr Shanks agreeing to apologise for the videos. Mr Barilaro did not receive any money in the settlement.

His lawsuit against Google remained active until yesterday, when the company was ordered to pay more than $700,000 over videos published by Mr Shanks to YouTube.

“This case involving John Barilaro and Google has exposed a gap in the law,” Vice President of The Rule of Law Institute of Australia, Chris Merritt, told Ray Hadley.

While yesterday’s decision doesn’t change the law in terms of the liability of digital platforms, it has reinforced they become liable once on notice for defamatory material.

“It is possible for plaintiffs now to ping not just the original ratbag that does defamatory things and says defamatory things but also the ultimate publisher, in this case, YouTube’s owner, Google.

“Online can do enormous damage. We’ve had an elected member of parliament drummed out of office by this campaign.”

Mr Barilaro cited the ongoing case against Mr Shanks as one of the reasons for his resignation in October 2021.

Mr Merritt noted while mainstream media is held to particular standards, online personalities publishing to social media are not and whether more can be done to standardise those platforms should be considered.

“There’s no debate about the rights and wrongs in this case,” he continued. “Google surrendered; they had no defences, they withdrew all their defences.

“The point I’m making is there’s no debate here. Barilaro is 100 per cent right and Google and friendlyjordies are 100 per cent wrong – they lost completely.”

Press PLAY below to hear the full interview 

Image: Nine News