Businessman takes Google to High Court to block online abuse from search results

The case of former Morgan Stanley banker Daniel Hegglin, who is attempting to compel Google to block anonymous abusive posts against him, opened in the High Court today.

The defamatory postings amount to a campaign of anonymous abuse against Hegglin, and include allegations that he is "a murderer, a Nazi, a Ku Klux Klan sympathiser, a paedophile, a corrupt businessman who has accepted bribes from state officials, an insider trader, and that he has laundered money on behalf of the Italian mafia", said Mr Justice Bean in July (PDF). There is no evidence to suggest that any of this is true.

Google has asked Hegglin to provide a list of web links to be removed, but the court will hear if the search giant should do more.

The injunction is for Google "to take all reasonable and proportionate technical steps" to ensure "the material does not appear as snippets in Google search results". And to "prevent the processing of personal data of the claimant which is inaccurate and/or which is causing or is likely to cause him substantial damage or substantial distress".

Hegglin previously lived in London and worked at Morgan Stanley but currently resides in Hong Kong. However, he has a number of close ties to the city and as such is seeking the legal order to to prevent the abusive posts being processed in searches in England and Wales.

Earlier this year, Costeja González won his fight for a "right to be forgotten" against Google in the European Court of Justice.

The Hegglin case will be heard this week. ®