A mere two weeks ago, the hallowed halls of the internet suffered a rocking blow – it turns out you can’t just say anything you want! Google was ordered to reveal the name of an anonymous blogger by New York state supreme court judge, Joan Madden.
A fashion model, Liskula Cohen, 27, was deemed to be entitled to the identity of the blogger on “Skanks in NYC” who maligned her sexual life, personal hygiene and appearance last year Cohen had asked for the name in order to launch a defamation suit.
Cohen’s lawyer said that the blog, launched last August on Google subsidiary Blogger.com, was threatening to cost the young model bookings. Apparently it was ranking high in search engines for Cohen’s name. Google cvited their privacy policy in their flat refusal to reveal the author’s identity.
Cohen, who has modeled for Vogue, Elle and other fashion magazines, went to a New York court, where Madden refuted with the blogger’s claim that her post was simply ‘trash talk’ .
“The thrust of the blog is that [Cohen] is a sexually promiscuous woman,” Madden wrote in her decision. The blog had called Cohen out personally as a “psychotic, lying, whoring … skank”and included photographs of her.
When Google finally turned over the blogger’s email address, Cohen immediately recognised it as a woman from the New York party scene. Rosemary Port is a fashion student.
“She’s an irrelevant person in my life,” Cohen said on ABC television’s Good Morning America. “She’s just somebody that, whenever I would go out to a restaurant, to a party in New York City – she was just that girl that was always there.”
Cohen claims she gave the woman a call and forgave her, but the woman didn’t even apologise.
Her attorney Steven Wagner said “The internet is no longer a safe harbour for defamatory language,” and intimated this may not be the end of the larger issue.
Port is now suing Google for breach of privacy, claiming she is owed $1.5 million in damages.
Tags: Cohen, defamation, Google, Madden, Port