Google loses defamation case against Australian politician, to pay $500,000

Australia’s federal court ordered Google on Monday to pay more than $500,000 in damages to a politician after finding he had been defamed by a comedian’s videos hosted on YouTube.

John Barilaro was deputy premier of the state of New South Wales in 2020, when an Australian comedian known as friendlyjordies uploaded a series of videos to YouTube, accusing the politician of corruption and using an Italian accent to mock his heritage.

Barilaro labelled the videos racist, and broke down in court watching one that had been filmed by friendlyjordies at a luxurious property that the politician owned and rented out on Airbnb.

“I’m traumatised by it,” Barilaro said during his testimony.