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Search Engine Liability For Autocomplete Defamation: Combating The Power Of Suggestion, Michael L. Smith
Search Engine Liability For Autocomplete Defamation: Combating The Power Of Suggestion, Michael L. Smith
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In September 2012, Bettina Wulff, a former first lady of Germany, sued Google for defamation. Mrs. Wulff's complaint arose from Google's autocomplete function: when Mrs. Wulff's name was entered into the search engine, the search engine automatically suggested terms such as "prostitute" and "red light district." Rumors that Mrs. Wulff was a former prostitute dated back to 2006 when she first met Christian Wulff, her eventual husband and president of Germany from 2010 until his resignation in February 2012. Mrs. Wulff denied the truth of these rumors.
Mrs. Wulff contended that these autocomplete results were defamatory and that they caused …