Search Engines’ Liability and Freedom of Speech

Ms. Albertario had requested a preliminary injunction to force Google and Yahoo to block searches which linked her to web sites with sexual content.

The decision handed down by Division 2 was consistent with prior decisions of the other divisions of the Federal Civil and Commercial Court of Appeals on responsibility of the web browsers, which hold that “the generic order, even if only provisional, to remove any link to sites that have certain features is considered excessive because, in addition to the difficulties resulting from the general examination of all sites carried out a priori by defendants, such a measure potentially affects freedom of speech”.

Division 2 ruled that at this preliminary stage of proceedings Google Inc. could not be held liable for damages plaintiff claimed to have suffered as a result of the association of her name with words such as “sex”, “porno” or “sexshop” in the searches made through www.google.com.

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		Iris V. Quadrio
		Gloria Montaron Estrada