Move FM Australian News

CANBERRA, Australia – Google has been ordered to pay John Barilaro, the former New South Wales state deputy premier, $715,000 (USD 520,000) due to the streaming of two YouTube videos that were found to be defamatory.

Barilaro had sued Google and comedian Jordan Shanks, also known as friendlyjordies, in the Federal Court due to the content of the videos.

Justice Steven Rares found Barilaro had been the “subject of a relentless, racist, abusive and defamatory campaign conducted on YouTube,” a platform owned by Google.

Barilaro told reporters outside the Sydney court that he felt “vindicated” by the judgment.

“I am emotional today. To hear His Justice read out the reasoning and the evidence and the case itself again is a little bit traumatizing,” Barilaro said, adding, “But I’m happy it’s the end of the journey. You’ve got to be either courageous or stupid to take on Google, and maybe it was a bit of both.”

Earlier, Google abandoned its defense against Barilaro’s suit. A four-day hearing in March only focused on the damages that Google would pay. Legal costs will be awarded at a later date.

Barilaro’s case against Shanks was settled in November last year when the comedian and political commentator issued an apology, agreed to pay $102,000 (USD 72,000), and edited the videos.

Shanks’ YouTube campaign had been cited as a reason for Barilaro’s decision to retire from politics last year.