Former NSW Deputy Prime Minister John Barilaro has received $ 715,000 in defamation damages for two YouTube videos.
Key points:
- A Federal Court judge agrees that Barilaro was “traumatized” by the videos
- The videos were a “relentless and vicious campaign,” according to the court
- Comedian Jordan Shanks solved a parallel case with Barilaro last year
Barilaro sued Google in Federal Court for not removing the sketch videos, which were made by comedian Jordan Shanks and published in September and October 2020.
The former Monaro MP said they were “vulgar”, “offensive”, portrayed him as a corrupt scammer and included “racial insults” referring to his Italian heritage.
Judge Steven Rares said today that Mr. Shanks, better known as FriendlyJordies, set up a “relentless and vicious campaign against Mr. Barilaro.”
He admitted that the retired politician was “traumatized” and said that Google had not taken responsibility for his conduct as a publisher.
Judge Rares noted that Mr. Shanks had called Barilaro by “disgusting” names and related him to the Mario brothers in Nintendo video games.
“Although Mr. Shanks is said to be a comedian, his repeated use of these terms was not comic,” the judge said.
“It was nothing more and nothing less than a racist hate speech.”
Google initially fought the case but gradually abandoned all of its defense arguments.
Videos released in September and October 2020 by FriendlyJordies accused Mr. Barilaro of years of corrupt decision-making. (YouTube: FriendlyJordies)
The judge found that the tech giant did not implement its own policies designed to prevent hate speech, cyberbullying and harassment.
He did not explain why he stopped the “many racist attacks” on YouTube once Mr Barilaro’s staff complained in late 2020.
In December last year, another video posted by Mr. Shanks was “deliberately” referring to Mr. Barilaro and the judge said they made allegations “without factual or intelligible basis” that attacked the professional integrity of their legal team.
Judge Rares said it was a “splenetic and vindictive attack … calculated to exert undue pressure to intimidate each of them into continuing to act for Barilaro.”
The judge referred the conduct of Mr Shanks and Google to the chief registrar of the court for consideration of the proceedings against them for “what appear to be serious misconduct in court”.
Out of court, Mr. Barilaro said he felt vindicated and was glad it was “the end of the journey.”
“You have to be brave or stupid to face Google, maybe it’s a bit of both,” he said.
Barilaro agreed that even if the original videos were removed, the material would remain online in other forms.
“This is the reality, and this is the beast that is social media and the online world,” he said.
John Barilaro sued Google for hosting videos on YouTube that defamed him. (AAP: Dean Lewins)
But he said all he wanted was an apology.
“It’s all I wanted from the beginning,” he said.
“That’s why we agreed with Jordan Shanks. He was willing to apologize.
“It was never about money. It was about an apology, about dismissal.”
As for life after politics, the former prime minister said he was “enjoying” the next phase of his life, especially after the traumatic last 18 months in office dealing with the videos.
“Life is good. I’m just enjoying life. There’s a lot to do. I’m 50, there’s an upcoming chapter.”
Earlier this year, Mr. Barilaro told the court that the videos made him consider self-harm and sparked many threatening public clashes with Mr. Barilaro’s fans. Shanks.
In November, he settled a parallel case against Mr. Shanks, after the comedian apologized for any crime caused and agreed to edit his videos.
Posted 7 hours, 7 hours ago, Monday, June 6, 2022 at 12:07 AM, last updated 6 hours, 6 hours ago, Monday, June 6, 2022 at 1:12 AM