WIPR survey: Google global injunction consistent with First Amendment
A global injunction issued by Canada’s Supreme Court is consistent with the US’s First Amendment, according to WIPR readers.
In June this year, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered Google to de-index the website of Datalink Technology Gateways.
Datalink had unlawfully relabelled and sold products of a competitor, Equustek Solutions, a technology company in British Colombia.
Google had raised freedom of expression concerns and challenged the “propriety and necessity of the extraterritorial reach” of the global order.
The dispute found itself at the Supreme Court, which upheld a global injunction, enjoining Google from displaying any part of Datalink’s websites on any of its search results worldwide.
In July, Google filed a claim against Equustek at the US District for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division.
It said: “Google brings this action to prevent enforcement in the US of a Canadian order that prohibits Google from publishing within the US search result information about the contents of the internet.”
Google is seeking a declaration from the court that the Canadian order is unenforceable in the US as it is inconsistent with the First Amendment and the Communications Decency Act.
“The Canadian order is repugnant to those rights, and the order violates principles of international comity, particularly since the Canadian plaintiffs never established any violation of their rights under US law,” said Google.
However, 100% of WIPR readers, when asked whether they agreed that the injunction was inconsistent with the First Amendment, said no (although they didn’t provide any reasoning).
David Price, senior product counsel at Google, said: “Rules regarding online content vary from country to country, so we're taking this court action to defend the legal principle that one country shouldn't be able to decide what information people in other countries can access online.”
He added that the undermining of this core principle “inevitably leads to a world where internet users are subject to the most restrictive content limitations from every country”.
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