Digital Media Law Project
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Home > Henry v. Google

Henry v. Google [1]

Submitted by DMLP Staff on Thu, 05/28/2009 - 17:33

Summary

Threat Type: 

Lawsuit

Date: 

05/20/2009

Status: 

Pending

Location: 

Mississippi

Verdict or Settlement Amount: 

N/A

Legal Claims: 

Defamation
Johnny I. Henry, an inventor of the vibrating toilet seat, filed a lawsuit against Google, Inc. and AOL, claiming that search results delivered by Google and hosted by AOL are defamatory.  Henry, who is African-American, asserts that Google's search results include links... read full description
Parties

Party Receiving Legal Threat: 

Google, Inc.; AOL

Type of Party: 

Individual

Type of Party: 

Large Organization
Intermediary

Location of Party: 

  • Mississippi

Location of Party: 

  • California
  • Virginia

Legal Counsel: 

Pro se
Description

Johnny I. Henry, an inventor of the vibrating toilet seat, filed a lawsuit against Google, Inc. and AOL, claiming that search results delivered by Google and hosted by AOL are defamatory.  Henry, who is African-American, asserts that Google's search results include links to, and snippets of text from, sites that contain pictures of him with captions containing a racial epithet. 

In his pro se complaint [2], Henry states:

The extreme derogatory nature of these web sites have committed a gross and negligible offense, not only to myself but to our newly elected president and first lady, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama.  I believe that without a shadow of a doubt that this type of racist negative behavior is directed at black people as a whole as well as all good hearted people that mean good throughout this country and world.

According to InformationWeek [3]:

Had Henry chosen to use Google with the SafeSearch preference set to "Use strict filtering," he wouldn't have seen the sites and been offended. That's because the sites in question appear to host sexual content. "Safe Search currently applies to sexual content only, not to racial epithets," explained a Google official in an e-mail.  

 

Related Links: 

  • IT Business Edge: Google, AOL Accused of Defamation, Slander [4]
  • InformationWeek: Google Sued By Inventor of Vibrating Toilet Seat [3]
  • Justia Docket [5]
  • CMLP Blog: Inventor of Vibrating Toilet Seat Sues Google Over Allegedly Defamatory Search Results [6]
Details

Web Site(s) Involved: 

Google.com [7]

Content Type: 

  • Text

Publication Medium: 

Other

Subject Area: 

  • Defamation
  • Section 230
Court Information & Documents

Jurisdiction: 

  • Mississippi

Source of Law: 

  • Mississippi

Court Name: 

United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi

Court Type: 

Federal

Case Number: 

2:09-cv-00099

Relevant Documents: 

PDF icon 2009-05-20-Henry-v-Google-Complaint.pdf [8]
PDF icon 2009-05-20-Henry-v-Google-Complaint-Exh1.pdf [9]
PDF icon 2009-05-20-Henry-v-Google-Complaint-Exh2.pdf [10]
CMLP Information (Private)

Threat Source: 

RSS

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Source URL (modified on 08/20/2014 - 11:09pm): https://www.dmlp.org/threats/henry-v-google

Links
[1] https://www.dmlp.org/threats/henry-v-google
[2] https://www.dmlp.org/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2009-05-20-Henry-v-Google-Complaint.pdf
[3] http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/search/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217600686&subSection=News
[4] http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/news/gov/blog/google-aol-accused-of-defamation-slander/?cs=32863
[5] http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-mssdce/case_no-2:2009cv00099/case_id-68766/
[6] https://www.dmlp.org/blog/2009/inventor-vibrating-toilet-seat-sues-google-over-allegedly-defamatory-search-results
[7] http://www.google.com/
[8] https://www.dmlp.org/sites/dmlp.org/files/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2009-05-20-Henry-v-Google-Complaint.pdf
[9] https://www.dmlp.org/sites/dmlp.org/files/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2009-05-20-Henry-v-Google-Complaint-Exh1.pdf
[10] https://www.dmlp.org/sites/dmlp.org/files/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2009-05-20-Henry-v-Google-Complaint-Exh2.pdf