Court Says Search Engines Not Making Things Disappear The Moment They're Deleted From Third-Party Sites Not 'Defamation'

Defamation

from the the-definition-of-'tort'-is-NOT-'something-I-don't-personally-li dept

Wed, Aug 12th 2015 7:22am — Tim Cushing

Eric Goldman brings the news of another misguided defamation lawsuit brought against search engines (plaintiff sued Google and Yahoo separately). The problem isn't that Google or Yahoo failed to comply with takedown requests. (There weren't any involved.) It was that the plaintiff -- Keyonna Ferrell -- deleted stuff she had posted to Pinterest and it kept showing up in search results for a few months after she vanished away the… well, I will now quote the complaint directly because anything otherwise wouldn't do it justice.

The facts of this case are:

I have a pininterest page. I changed it around Feb 5th of 2015. Before I put all the celebrity stuff up. I changed my screen name from Keyonna Ferrell to K Ferrell and the picture I had up for a week was also removed from pininterest. I have an email of the exact I did this But its vague. I have another emil from pininterest with proof it was removed but its in March. I will copy the emails below. The pictures were removed about 6 weeks after I complained but it was way too long. I have three threads all sent to legal legal@google.com they are not one message sent in one day they are messages sometimes once a day sometimes two and three times to legal a day over the course of three months google. Changed it settings, this is my email these are the threads. I usally send a copy to myself of each emails sent to google but all these emails were sent to LEGAL you cant tell unless you click inside. That's google for you. They changed their settings when I started taking pictures. I have pasted emails below. I am STILL having problems with them due to the page people are retaliating I ve been to four different hotels ive dealt wit stolen property, defemation of character, privacy being taken (picture wa deleted before celebrity went up pininterest and google resurfaced the images A month after I deleted it off my page) Defamation of character.

So, the crux of the case is that Google and Yahoo took "too long" to "forget" photos Keyonna Ferrell posted publicly on a third party's website. But nothing she alleges adds up to the injury she's claiming.

Ferrell alleges that she put information on the internet that remained accessible through the Yahoo search engine and thus available for viewing by the public after she had removed the images from Pinterest. She also alleges that a video not associated with her appears among search results based on her name. Nothing about this allegation suggests that the information made available was false. Ferrell therefore fails to state a claim for defamation.

Goldman notes that this is an interesting claim (albeit "interesting" in a way that pro se filings often are).

The court doesn’t say how many days elapsed between the alleged Pinterest removals and Google/Yahoo’s alleged failure to update their search database, nor do we know if Google and Yahoo had good reasons for delaying their deletions. I do know we’d see many dubious lawsuits if plaintiffs can sue search engines for taking too long to delete removed items from their databases.

This would be a ridiculous outcome, but all it takes is one significant case. This isn't it. As Goldman notes, US law differs significantly from the European legal interpretations of search engines' obligations in light of the "right to be forgotten" decision. Were that applicable here, Ferrell may have been successful in claiming damages for "delays" by third parties unrelated to the service where the content was originally posted.

If you're interested in reading some more of Keyonna Ferrell's legal excursions, she has also sued Quality Inn for... something. All I know is it revolves around a misplaced phone charger, some guy named TBOY, a missing roll of toilet paper, an unrecovered stash of personal documents and many, many incidents in which people failed to take Ferrell seriously.

Ferrell v Google (PDF)Ferrell v Google (Text)

Ferrell v Yahoo (PDF)Ferrell v Yahoo (Text)

Ferrell v Google Complaint (PDF)Ferrell v Google Complaint (Text)

Ferrell vs Hotels (PDF)Ferrell vs Hotels (Text)

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Filed Under: defamation, keyonna ferrell, pro se, right to be forgotten, search engines
Companies: google, pinterest, yahoo

24 Comments

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Ninja (profile), 12 Aug 2015 @ 7:24am

Newsflash: information you post publicly on the net may remain there forever. On another news Ferrell sues the internet archive for doing its job.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Aug 2015 @ 7:38am

Next time, don't type your complaint out on your smart phone with autocorrect. You should then take a few minutes to releas it just to make sure it's coherent
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Questionable Anon, 12 Aug 2015 @ 7:47am

Google Maps still shows my former Infiniti G35x in my driveway. Clearly this is actionable
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PaulT (profile), 12 Aug 2015 @ 7:48am

Obviously an egocentric moron, but this was the funniest bit:

"She also alleges that a video not associated with her appears among search results based on her name"

As someone with an extremely common first and last name, it's highly amusing that someone would think they should only see things associated with them on a search. Even if her name was unique in the world, if a Mr & Mrs Ferrell decided to call their new daughter Keyonna tomorrow, there should be no reason why the latter shouldn't be returned in Google results.

I bet she was too dumb to put her name in quotes either, meaning that she was probably getting a result for Will, Colin or other popular Ferrell/Farrells following those specifically containing her full name.

However, I do hope she enjoys the results of this lawsuit. Searching Google now, I'm seeing very few links that aren't reporting on the judgement here and/or pointing out how much of a moron she is. The 10th result I see is a birth record for someone born in 2009 with the name Keyonna Ranea Ferrell, so no, she's not even as unique in the world as she thought, after all.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Aug 2015 @ 7:53am

The more obscure, the longer it takes
A search engine is not magic. It works by downloading a page, seeing what it links to, downloading these pages... For it to notice that a page has been updated, it has to download the page again.

There are billions of pages in the Internet. Even for the all-powerful Google, it takes some time to revisit a page. The trick is that it prioritizes the pages it revisits. Important pages like Wikipedia or a newspaper homepage are revisited more often; less important pages like the pinterest page for an obscure nobody will take a longer time to be revisited.

If I'm reading the incoherent complaint right, it took only 6 weeks for Googlebot (Google's spider) to automatically revisit the page and notice the changes. For an obscure page out of the billions in the Internet, that's quite fast.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Aug 2015 @ 9:13am

Re:
No really, Ive had stuff indexed by google which I got removed from a site, by just asking the site owner to remove it, and then asked google to reindex the page. Using their search tools, not their legal department.
Now that stuff cant be found.
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Ninja (profile), 12 Aug 2015 @ 9:51am

Re: Re:
That's why I used "may remain" and not "will remain". Still it was both luck it wasn't archived before removal and awesome because you asked politely and the site owner was awesome to remove it. I haven't had the same luck with one tiny thing I asked to be removed. Nothing serious though. It is an e-mail address that was posted publicly and ensued a spammer hell in my inbox, now mostly under control.
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Nastybutler77 (profile), 12 Aug 2015 @ 9:59am

I've heard of Pinterest, but what the hell is pininterest?
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wereisjessicahyde (profile), 12 Aug 2015 @ 10:12am

It seems she has form for this sort of thing
It seems she has form for this sort of thing..

http://www.leagle.com/decision/In%20FDCO%2020150803640/FERRELL%20v.%20MY%20LIFE

https://docket s.justia.com/docket/maryland/mddce/8:2015cv01619/319043

Case dismissed.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Aug 2015 @ 10:16am

The Quality Inn document is a must-read. I swear, Ms. Ferrell has the coolest existence imaginable: she's living out a life of Jason Bourne fan-fic, as written by Tommy Chong.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Aug 2015 @ 10:19am

Re:
I went back and reread it in Tommy Chong's voice. I highly recommend it.
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David, 12 Aug 2015 @ 10:22am

Next up - immediate crawling!
If this goes through, the next lawsuit will be to sue Google/Yahoo for not indexing pictures/etc immediately after being posted.

At least the Court seemed to understand how a search 'Index' actually works.
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Ehud Gavron (profile), 12 Aug 2015 @ 10:31am

Typo/Freudian slip?
The first sentence is missing an ending.

"Eric Goldman Brings news that... another defamation lawsuit[]".

E
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Aug 2015 @ 10:31am

Eric Goldman brings the news that another misguided defamation lawsuit brought against search engines (plaintiff sued Google and Yahoo separately).

That sentence seems awkward, like it's "dangling"..
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Aug 2015 @ 10:44am

Re: Typo/Freudian slip?
I like to think of it as an homage to the plaintiff's writing style.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Aug 2015 @ 11:16am

Re:
Tim left the rest of that sentence under a chair cushion in his room at the Holiday Inn. He can't go get it because hey, everybody needs toilet paper (especially if it's a brand new roll). While this is of no concern of mine, what's your Social Security Number? Now I have thing to do on my computer.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Aug 2015 @ 11:27am

Re: Re:
I called the police because they handle. They said I had the wrong number and that I called a pizza place, I became suspicious so I hung up and called from another phone but before I got to it someone was humming which made me realize they were retaliating against me so I checked into a new hotel with an assumed name and went to sleep because I was tired.
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That One Other Not So Random Guy, 12 Aug 2015 @ 3:52pm

Re:
You too. ;)
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fairuse (profile), 13 Aug 2015 @ 12:40am

Re: It seems she has form for this sort of thing
I read the "My Life" opinion after reading the "Quality Inn & Police Officers" complaint filing.

First, I thought this person needs a doctor. Playing, "I'm not a lawyer but I play one in real life." is foolhardy.

Second, knowing absolutely nothing about the person except for what I read I'll say there is something unbalanced in thinking every one of the hotel's staff is out to get her.

Third, she forgets "document bag" at each hotel. Thinks little things like missing bathroom tissue is taken by staff. Wants her way with hotel's staff and a guest at 0400 in the morning.

Plus, nobody in their right mind writes a screenplay idea as facts supporting the claim. I kinda feel bad for the judge, however, since I'm figuratively barfing in Mz Ferrell's shoes after reading her word soup it doesn't matter what I think.
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yankinwaoz (profile), 13 Aug 2015 @ 3:58pm

Re:
My god, its like reading a bad Hunter Thompson impression.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Aug 2015 @ 4:11pm

Re: Re: It seems she has form for this sort of thing
> Second, knowing absolutely nothing about the person except for what I read I'll say there is something unbalanced in thinking every one of the hotel's staff is out to get her.

Well, they almost certainly weren't, then.
But today... well, today might be another story...
:P
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2015 @ 8:54am

Re:
I read the whole 15 pages. It was painful to read, but hilarious and well worth it. This woman is...something else to put it nicely.
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Stoatwblr (profile), 16 Aug 2015 @ 11:08am

In the USA
You're free to sue anyone over anything.

Actually doing so may or many not be a good idea, but you're free to do so.

You're also free to be put on a pedestal and paraded around as an asshat. Court filings are public unless sealed and once republished most judges won't bother.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2015 @ 9:27am

Re:
The interest % you get from your savings account in your bank.
So small it will fit on the head of a pin.
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