Google's search result order protected under free speech, says US court
A court in San Francisco has made a landmark call protecting Google's process of categorising its search results under the right to free speech.
CoastNews' owner filed the lawsuit
The ruling emerged after a lawsuit was filed by a website called CoastNews' owner, Louis Martin, accusing Google of bias when it comes to arranging results.
Martin claimed that Google’s search rules harmed the site’s SEO to the extent that it performed markedly worse in Google than in Yahoo and Bing, according to Gigaom.
Judge Ernest Goldsmith of the superior court of California, said: "The defendant has met its burden of showing the claims asserted against it arise from constitutionally protected activity."
Lawyers Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati issued a statement to the court defending the search engine’s position: “Google’s search results express Google’s opinion on which websites are most likely to be helpful to the user in response to a query and are thus fully protected by the First Amendment.”
The US decision however clashes with a former EU ruling which is currently looking to reduce Google’s control of the search market under anti-completion regulation.
In September, the EU reopened its four-year antitrust investigation into Google’s search and advertising business following “very, very negative” responses.
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