Case Study Examples
Can You Sue Google for Defamation?
The answer is yes, but not cheaply. Milorad Trkulja sued Google for defamation after it declined his formal requests to remove search results allegedly linking him to Melbourne’s criminal underworld. He argued that Google defamed him by displaying images and autocomplete suggestions (e.g., "Michael Trkulja criminal") implying his association with notorious criminals like Tony Mokbel and Carl Williams.
Google’s defense relied on the "innocent dissemination" principle, claiming it was merely a distributor, not a publisher, of the negative content. Initially, the Victorian Court of Appeal agreed, granting search engines immunity unless they failed to act after a complaint.
However, in 2018, the High Court reversed this decision, ruling Google could be considered a publisher and the associated search results could likely be defamatory. It found that innocent dissemination wasn’t always a valid defense for search engines, and the case was sent back to the Supreme Court of Victoria for trial.
The rise in social media reach combined with search engines has seen a rise in defamation, something search engines like Google take no responsibility for.
Implications for Defamation Cases
This landmark case emphasizes the importance of using Polish My Past’s proprietary negative content removal approaches for the withdrawal of defamatory and unwanted content. If our efforts do not fully achieve the desired result, as a last resort legal action against Google may well be viable but costly. Polish My Past will always try to balance cost versus outcome and vice versa.
Important Considerations
In all Australian States and Territories, defamation claims must be filed within one year of the defamatory material's publication. Failing to do so likely bars any legal remedy.
Courts may extend this period to a maximum of three years, but only in rare cases where the applicant proves it was unreasonable to sue within the first year. Extensions are seldom granted.
It’s very important to understand the time limitation might be convoluted by the source of the negative material reappearing via alternative websites. Recognising there can be more than one digital intermediary relating to the same content, often appearing from nowhere.
CrowdStrike
CrowdStrike was an unknown company thrown into the global spotlight for all the wrong reasons when a simple software update caused a global IT outage, now having a long way to go to win client’s trust back. The fallout from the outage was swift with CrowdStrike's shares dropping by as much as 20% following the outage.
https://www.businessinsider.com/crowdstrike-reputation-outage-crisis-management-analyst-2024-7
Blake Lively vs Justin Baldoni
The hit show “It Ends With Us” has turned into a costly legal and litigation mess regarding Hollywood public relations. Including allegations of a negative smear campaign, sexual harassment, defamation, and privacy breaches all impacting the individual’s reputations. The alleged smear tactics include astroturfing, the deceptive practice of presenting an orchestrated campaign as organic social media posts or comments, and falsely planted stories.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jan/18/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-lawsuits-pr-battle
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/business/media/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-it-ends-with-us.html
United Airlines
United Airlines saw its market value drop by over $1 billion after a video of a passenger being forcibly removed from an overbooked flight went viral.
Within a single day, the footage generated more than 1 million online mentions and surpassed 100 million views. The CEO faced widespread criticism for his perceived lack of decisive action in managing the public relations and trust fallout.
Although this incident occurred in 2017, it remains a frequent topic in online reputation management discussions today.
Nestlé
Nestlé experienced a major brand reputation crisis when Greenpeace publicly accused the company of environmentally harmful practices.
Instead of directly addressing the allegations, Nestlé reportedly requested YouTube to take down Greenpeace’s video, a move that only fueled public backlash. The situation escalated to the point where the company had to temporarily disable its public web page due to an influx of negative comments, including a widely shared altered KitKat logo reading “Killer.”
This incident underscores how a single negative story can spiral into a full-blown reputation crisis. Proactively managing your brand’s image, sentiment and having a crisis response strategy in place is essential to mitigating potential lasting reputation damage.