Google wins defamation battle as Australia’s high court finds tech giant not a publisher

Judgement rules a hyperlink is merely a tool' in case between search engine and Melbourne lawyer George Defteros

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Australia's highest court has ruled Google is not a publisher of the websites it links to in search results, finding the internet giant did not defame a Victorian lawyer known for representing underworld figures.

The high court on Wednesday found Google was not the publisher of a defamatory article published by The Age about George Defteros in 2004, as it was a search engine that merely provided hyperlinks to such content.