A Swiss court has thrown out a lawsuit from FIFA against Google over defamation due to a website appearing in the company’s search engine. The governing body of soccer previously sued Google due to actual results. One of the specific search results for FIFA, according to the plaintiff, is for a website that regularly criticizes the governing body and its president, Gianni Infantino.
The site in question, Fifacolonialism, frequently publishes anonymous articles that accuse FIFA and Infantino of being corrupt. A majority of the pieces on the website revolve around a perceived interference in African soccer’s governance. This specifically includes allegedly influencing leaders of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). Fifacolonialism also claims that Infantino directly had a hand in selecting past presidents of the CAF.
FIFA previously argued that the claims made by the site are false. Because of this claim, the governing body asserted that they had a defamation case at hand. FIFA was calling on the court to remove the website from search results.
FIFA failed to prove its defamation case against Google
Nevertheless, a Swiss court has now ruled in favor of Google during the case in the actual hometown of FIFA. As a result, the American company does not have to delete Fifacolonialism from their search engine. The website is still accessible using Google.
The court rejected FIFA’s defamation claims by ruling that FIFA could not prove its case. Swiss officials asserted that the Fifacolonialism articles were not reachable online by solely typing “FIFA” in Google’s search bar. Because of this, the massive American tech company was not responsible for the content on the disputed website.
Not only is Fifacolonialism still found on the search engine, but FIFA must also pay Google appropriate compensation. The governing body of the sport can, however, still appeal the decision. It remains to be seen if FIFA will take this route.
FIFA…
Source link : https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/fifa-attempt-to-muzzle-website-and-google-backfires/
Author : Chris Moore
Publish date : 2024-09-29 21:00:00
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