Google Convicted of Defamation in France

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REUTERS/Mike Blake

Apparently, in France you can’t algorithmically link a convicted sex offender with the term rape, until all of his appeals have been exhausted.

The Telegraph reports that a French man who has been convicted of the “corruption of a minor” found that when he typed his name into the search engine, suggested terms such as “rape”, “rapist”, and “satanist” automatically popped up as well.

But since he is currently appealing his conviction–and French law declares individuals innocent until all appeals are exhausted–the Superior Court of Paris found Google guilty of publicly slandering the man.

A spokeswoman for Google has said that the company plans on appealing the French court decision and that the search engine works with algorithms and only suggests terms that are the most commonly searched. “Google does not suggest these terms. All of the queries shown in Autocomplete have been typed previously by other Google users,” she said. (via the Telegraph)