YouTube ordered to pay Australian politician John Barilaro $715,000 for hosting “defamatory” content

In an explosive ruling, Google was ordered to pay $715,000 in defamation damages to the former deputy premier for New South Wales John Barilaro for now deleting two YouTube videos that criticized the politician.

Barilaro sued the tech company for refusing to remove the videos, published by comedian Jordan Shanks in 2020.

According to Barilaro, the videos were “vulgar,” portrayed him as corrupt, and had “racial slurs” attacking his Italian heritage.

The judge agreed, saying that the videos were a “relentless vicious campaign against Mr. Barilaro.”

“Although Mr. Shanks styles himself as a comedian, his repeated use of such terms was not comedic,” the judge said.

“It was nothing less than racist hate speech.”

The judge said that Google should have taken responsibility as a publisher and failed to apply its policies on hate speech, harassment, and cyberbullying.

Last December, amid the trial, Shanks posted another video, attacking Barilaro’s lawyer and the judge, saying they were accusing him “without factual and intelligible basis.”

The judge said that the video was a “splenetic and vindictive attack … calculated to bring improper pressure to intimidate each of them from c...