Tuesday, 26 August 2014

Expat in Thailand David Hanks to pursue new cyber harassment cases against Google

david hanks thailand
David Hanks

Google is likely to face a High Court trial in the UK next year in a cyber harassment case to be brought by an expat living in Thailand who will seek to block 'disgusting' blog comments.

David Hanks, has filed criminal indictments against Google  in Thailand already for a 'disgusting' post on Google's 'Blogger' platform, and now intends to sue in the UK.

Lawyer for Hanks, Nattawat Damnaphoen said ' The Thai criminal court is now expected to order our documents be served in the US, and this may delay the case, but we will work to achieve our goal'.


Daniel Hegglin

This follows news that Daniel Hegglin, a former Morgan Stanley banker, told the High Court last week that internet search results in Google search contained “abusive” material about his client which seems to be “increasing” and “proliferating” despite Google’s attempts to deal with the issue as it removed URLs, forcing Hegglin to file in the High Court.

Hanks has now foreshadowed that Google is to be sued in the UK under the UK data protection act.

“This is not a right to be forgotten case at all'  said Hanks today ' this blog post is so disgusting and so obviously false that we are amazed Google did not remove it - they told us to get a Court order, so we will'.


Google now seem to be facing a raft of cases globally as Albert Yeung, a Hong Kong based tycoon has similarly recently filed a case in the Hong Kong High Court over 'autocomplete' entries.


Albert Yeung
Earlier this year the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that European citizens should have the right to ask internet search engines to remove embarrassing or sensitive results for queries that include their name in the so-called 'right to be forgotten' ruling.


The case is not the first to be brought in the UK against Google, a previous litigant in Tamiz v Google brought a case for defamation in which Google was held to be a 'sceondary publisher' in certain circumstances.

Thursday, 21 August 2014

Google sued in Hong Kong in internet defamation case.

Albert Yeung 
The Hong Kong High Court has given a prominent business man Albert Yeung Sau-shing leave to sue Google for defamation.


Yeung's empire spans jewelry, property and finance in Hong Kong.
david hanks thailand
David Hanks
This Hong Kong case against Google comes at a time when a business man in Thailand, David Hanks, has filed criminal indictments against Google for a 'disgusting' post on Google's 'Blogger' platform.

The case relates to searches for Yeung’s name on Google and suggestions made by the auto-complete function. In both Chinese and English versions auto-complete proposes the word ‘triad,’ a reference to Hong Kong organized crime syndicates, when searching for Yeung.

Yeung accuses Google of libel and is seeking to have it remove the organized crime references.

Google failed in a bid to have the case dismissed before it can go to trial.

The internet giant that the Hong Kong courts do not have the jurisdiction over the company, and second that Google cannot be held responsible for search suggestions - arguments that have failed previously in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

“There is a good arguable case that Google Inc. is the publisher of the ‘Words’ and liable for their publication,” said Marlene Ng, deputy High Court judge in her ruling.

Google, which maintains offices and staff in Hong Kong’s Central district, did not attempt to argue that the auto-complete suggestions concerning Yeung were not defamatory.

In 2010 Google pulled out of mainland China and relocated its Chinese operations to Hong Kong after it refused to censor searches according to the wishes of Chinese Internet regulators. Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China, and has separate legislative and judicial systems from the People’s Republic. Unlike China, which maintains strict control of the media and the Internet, the press and web are not censored by government in Hong Kong.

In the 1980s and 1990s, when Hong Kong’s film industry was at its height and producing hundreds of films per year for export, triad involvement was commonplace. Gang members frequently attended film production locations and provide everything from ‘protection services’ to on-screen talent. In the last 15 or 20 years, however, such activity has largely disappeared from Hong Kong film and triad gangs focused on other business activities.

UK High Court to hear Google ‘cyber harassment’ case

Daniel Hegglin


Google is set to face a High Court trial in the UK this year in a cyber harassment brought by an international businessman who wants to block permanently “vile and abusive” material about him appearing in Google’s internet search results (SERPS).

Daniel Hegglin, a former Morgan Stanley banker, told the court that internet search results in Google search contained “abusive” material about his client which seems to be “increasing” and “proliferating” despite Google’s attempts to deal with the issue as it removed URLs.

Google is being sued under the UK data protection act.

“This is not a right to be forgotten case at all,” Mr Tomlinson told the court. “It’s about the circulation of abusive material.”

Mr Tomlinson told the court he likened dealing with the internet search results about his client as “playing a game of whack a mole”, describing the children’s game “where one mole pops out of a hole and you hit it and another pops up”.

David Hanks



This UK case against Google comes at a time when a business man in Thailand, David Hanks, has filed criminal indictments against Google for a 'disgusting' post on Google's 'Blogger' platform, and Albert Yeung, a Hong Kong based tycoon has similarly filed a case over 'autocomplete' entries.




Albert Yeung
Earlier this year the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that European citizens should have the right to ask internet search engines to remove embarrassing or sensitive results for queries that include their name in the so-called right to be forgotten ruling.

Mr Hegglin’s case appears to predate the ECJ ruling in May.

Andrew Caldecott QC, acting for Google, told the hearing that the internet search giant had seen the number of “right to be forgotten” requests rise in the UK from 8,000 individuals relating to 250,000 URLs to 12,000 individuals relating to 320,000 URLs in recent weeks.

Mr Caldecott told the court “This case has every look of a test case with enormous consequences”

Mr Justice Bean granted Mr Hegglin’s lawyers permission to serve the claim form on Google in California and suggested a trial could be held later in the year, and said “It is in everyone’s interest if this matter is not resolved for it to come to court sooner rather than later”.

Lawyers for Hegglin said “The claimant is simply seeking assistance from Google in blocking access to some seriously defamatory and abusive content on numerous websites being published in the UK, including websites hosted by Google.

Given the obvious unlawfulness of the material concerned, the claimant was surprised that he had to issue legal proceedings against Google to obtain an effective and lasting remedy."

The case is not the first to be brought in the UK against Google, a previous litigant in Tamiz v Google brought a case for defamation in which Google was held to be a 'sceondary publisher' in certain circumstances.





Monday, 18 August 2014

New Criminal Indictments filed against Google in Thailand.


Koh Samui, Thailand 18th August  2014 

US based directors of internet giant Google are to face Court in Thailand over a  'disgusting' Blogspot post hosted on Google's Blogger platform.

Multiple criminal charges were filed today in Koh Samui Provincial Criminal Court in a criminal indictment naming as defendants Google Inc, it's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and also Eric E. Schmidt, along with the entire US based board of directors of Google in a criminal case involving alleged breaches of Thailand's Computer Crimes Act.

David Hanks

Expatriate business man #DavidHanks, 66,   filed criminal charges against Google and it's Thai operating company in case number 1434/2557.

The charges have been laid gainst Google Inc and it's directors based in California, but also names Google's Thai operating company and it's Bangkok based directors as defendants - the law suit  alleges contravention of a number of sections of the Thai Computer Related Crimes Act.

Hanks with lawyer Nattawat Damnaphoen submitted criminal indictments to the Koh Samui Provincial Criminal Court alleging that Google has provided hosting services via it's Blogger platform to an anonymous blogger, who is alleged to have written a 'disgusting' post.

Hanks alleges that a small number of individuals -around 4 or 5 he believes -  have been using the blog and a number of fake Google profiles to engage in an ongoing coordinated campaign of abuse and cyber harassment.

Hanks alleges that the blogger has written a post described in Court documents as 'disgusting' and 'designed to degrade, humiliate and embarass'.
Court documents allege that Google breached the Computer Crimes Act in Thailand by failing to act when Hanks submitted a request to Google earlier this year to remove the offensive material. It  is alleged  Google responded claiming they were immune from prosecution under US Code 47 USC 230 ( the Communications Decency Act) and refused to remove material in dispute.

Following this response from Google Hanks instructed lawyers to initiate a criminal prosecution under Thailand's tough Computer Related Crimes Act.
Hanks said today ' I am not filing a case for defamation, the nature of this post is so incredibly disgusting that I am amazed that Google did not remove it. It is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen written anywhere - and is completely false! When Google refused to remove this post by an anonymous blogger we were left with no choice but to file a case against the service provider'.

Documents filed with the Court allege that Google's Blogger platform and search engine results contain false illegal data and that Google and it's directors have committed multiple criminal offences by failing to remove the offensive posts when requested.
Under s. 15 of the Computer Related Crimes Act  in Thailand a 'service provider' can be held legally responsible for illegal content if they are notified properly and fail to remove the material, and s. 17 allows overseas based service providers to be prosecuted in Thailand.

Lawyers acting for Hanks say the case has no link to the #right to be forgotten case in the European Court of Justice.

The Court has issued summonses to the defendants and the case has been set down for a preliminary hearing on 20th October 2014 to allow the Court to decide if a prima facie case exists to then take the case forward to a full trial.