Three companies under the Oriental Press Group (OPG), parent company of the newspapers Oriental Daily and The Sun, are suing Google for libelous content on its websites.
Oriental Press Group Limited, Oriental Daily Publisher Limited and The Sun News Publisher Limited have filed three separate lawsuits against blogspot.hk and groups.google.com. Two lawsuits relate to allegedly libelous content posted by five users on the websites on February 28, 2014 and March 31, 2014, Oriental Daily reported.
The third lawsuit is in relation to potentially libelous content displayed on google.com.hk since April 8 this year. The case refers to instances when internet users search for the words “white powder newspaper” – where white powder means heroin – in Chinese, Apple Daily reported.
OPG has demanded that Google pay compensation and has requested the High Court to grant injunctions to restrain the search engine giant from publishing or allowing others to publish the allegedly defamatory statements and similar ones.
OPG also requested the disclosure of the related users’ personal information, including name, address, email, Hong Kong Identity Card number and IP address.
It is not the first time that OPG has sued companies for publishing libelous content on their websites. In 2009, OPG sued Fevaworks Solutions Limited – the company behind popular HKGolden forum – to restrain them from publishing defamatory statements also related to “white powder.” OPG won the case.
Oriental Daily co-founder Ma Sik-chun was charged in 1977 for conspiracy to import opium into Hong Kong between 1967 and 1973, according to the Narcotics Division of the government’s Security Bureau. He was smuggled out of Hong Kong to Taiwan on being released on bail by a Magistrate. Ma died in Taiwan in June.
