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On August 13, 2010, an Argentine Appellate Court overturned a 2008 ruling of a lower court that had found Yahoo! de Argentina SRL and Google Argentina  liable for defamation in the case of an Argentine entertainer, Virginia Da Cunha. Da Cunha is one of several Argentine celebrities who have been seeking money damages in relation to the companies’ alleged failure to block all third-party owned and controlled sexually-oriented Web sites that contain their name or images.

In issuing the 2-1 decision in favor of the companies, the Appellate Court concluded that the companies could be held liable for damages based on a defamation claim only if they were made aware of clearly illegal content and were negligent in removing it. The Appellate Court stated:

 “…this Court finds no liability can be held against Defendants (search engines) for injurious search results that appeared on the Internet before Defendants have received notice requesting the exclusion of said search results. The mere possibility that a (defendant) search engine produces search results from third party sites that yield offensive and scandalous information about an individual, which may cause injury or damage to that person’s image or reputation, does not by itself mean that said individual has a right to seek damages directly against the search engines.”

In response to the ruling, Bill Carvalho, Yahoo’s Regional General Counsel for Americas, issued the following statement:

“Yahoo! is happy with and encouraged by the Da Cunha ruling; we believe this will set precedence for similar pending cases in Argentina. Rulings in these cases and the preliminary orders associated with them seem to reflect the Argentine courts trying to develop their understanding of an issue created by the modern development of search engines. As they come to more fully understand the Internet and the roles of the various parties involved in these cases – from the search engines to the parties actually publishing the content objected to – we are confident that the courts will conclude that we neither control nor manage the content published by third parties and should not be held responsible or liable for their editorial choices on their own websites.

Yahoo! will continue to defend the important principles behind our position and pursuing these matters within the Argentine legal system. We believe a positive outcome for Yahoo! Argentina on the principles we are defending will also benefit Internet users throughout Argentina.

The ruling affected Yahoo!’s search engine in Argentina only and not the U.S. sites. The Argentine Appellate Court alluded to the importance and accessibility of information in a free and democratic society and that the Internet is but one important tool for Argentine society to be informed of different and diverse ideas. The Appellate Court concluded by stating:

 “Argentine Civil Law #26.032/05 has established that the search, receipt and exchange of diverse ideas from an Internet service, falls clearly within the constitutional guaranty of the freedom of expression”.

By Ernesto Luciano |General Counsel |Yahoo! Hispanic Americas