Background
Jordan Shanks-Markovina released on the friendlyjordies channel a video entitled "bruz" of 14 September 2020, and another entitled "Secret Dictatorship" on 21 October 2020. Furthermore, he gate-crashed an event that Barilaro was attending, dressed up as video game character Luigi. On 27 May 2021 Barilaro initiated a defamation case against Shanks-Markovina and Google in the Federal Court of Australia, claiming the two videos defamed him. He was able to present in person, or serve, the required documents to Shanks-Markovina who is ordinarily resident in Australia, but required the leave, or permission, of the court to serve those documents to Google at their headquarters in the United States. On 9 July 2021 Justice Steven Rares granted leave for Google to be served the required documents citing rules 10.42 and 1.43 of the Federal Court Rules 2011. Google formally acknowledged to the court they had received the required documents. Rares declined to consider defences relating to Barilaro's actions before a committee of theClaims and defences
Barilaro filed a complaint before the Federal Court claiming that two videos published on the friendlyjordies YouTube channel unreasonably defamed him. In his pleadings Barilaro claimed that the first video, ''bruz'', was defamatory because it conveyed the imputations that Barilaro: * "is a corrupt conman" (imputation 9(a)) * "committed perjury nine times" (imputation 9(b)) * "so conducted himself in committing perjury nine times that he should be gaoled" (imputation 9(c)) * "corruptly gave $3.3 million to a beef company" (imputation 9(d)) * "corruptly voted against a Royal Commission into water theft" (imputation 9(e)) For the second video, ''Secret Dictatorship'', the alleged imputations were that Barilaro: * "acted corruptly by engaging in the blackmailing of councillors" (imputation 15(a)) * "acted corruptly by engaging in the blackmailing of councillors using taxpayer money" (imputation 15(b)) * "pocketed millions of dollars which have been stolen from theTrial
Google's conduct in maintaining their defences, only to withdraw them days before the trial was criticised by Justice Rares, who accused Google of wasting Barilaro's money, and the federal court's time, claiming that, "if this egal casewas uncontested this could have been heard last year." Barilaro's barrister, Sue Chrysanthou argued that the only rational conclusion for Google's behaviour was to waste Barilaro's time and money, as to pressure him into agreeing to a settlement, and that Google's actions had caused Barilaro to "expend hundreds of thousands of dollars in this case as an individual against a company worth billions and billions." During the course of the trial, several videos were uploaded referencing Barilaro's legal counsel. Rares stated that he was "shocked" by the videos, that suggested Barilaro's lawyers may have submitted false statutory declarations. Rares stated that the videos appeared to be a "calculated" attempt at influencing Barilaro and his lawyers into withdrawing the case, and that he would give "serious consideration" towards referring the case to the Federal Court's registrar for a contempt of court prosecution. Rares went on to claim that he was "completely dumbfounded" by Google's conduct in failing to remove the videos upon being notified, stating that they "know the law of contempt - or they should." During the trial, Chrysanthou argued that the "Google facilitated a vile and despicably racist smear campaign against John Barilaro", and that the videos resulted in Barilaro's resignation from public office. She also argued that Shanks-Markovina had a clearly apparent hatred of Barilaro, that the videos are of an abusive and racist nature, and that Google refused to remove the videos in spite of them being in violation of their own content policies. Furthermore, it was argued that the videos had prompted a wave of online abuse towards Barilaro, and resulted in him being regularly confronted by members of the public. Barilaro's former deputy chief of staff, Jeff McCormack, told that court that Barilaro had gone from being an "incredibly social" person to withdrawn, that he had attempted to disguise himself while in public, that Barilaro had received numerous threats targeted at him and his family, and that after the publication of the ''Secret Dictatorship'' video in October 2020, Barilaro was "basically at the physical point where he was considering self-harm and discussing resignation from his role." At several occasions during the trial, Barilaro appeared to be distressed. He temporarily left the courtroom after becoming upset during the hearing's final day. It was argued by Chrysanthou that while Google had justified leaving the videos up by claiming that the videos cited mainstream media articles about Barilaro, Google "did not do a Google search of arilaro" and if they had read the articles, "they would have seen that they do not support the scandalous allegations being made about arilaro" While Google's lawyer, James Hmelnitsky, conceded that he believed that Google's withdrawn defences were baseless, he argued that Google was only liable for the period after Barilaro had complained to Google, not from the date of the videos' publication, and urged Rares not to account for any potential contempt of court when determining the amount of damages payable to Barilaro. On 6 June, Barilaro was awarded $715,000 in defamation damages from Google.References
{{reflist, refs= {{Cite AustLII, litigants=Barilaro v Shanks-Markovina (No. 1), FCA, 789, 2021 {{Cite AustLII, litigants=Barilaro v Shanks-Markovina (No. 2), FCA, 950, 2021 {{Cite AustLII, litigants=Barilaro v Shanks-Markovina (No. 2), FCA, 950, 2021, pinpoint=13 {{Cite AustLII, litigants=Barilaro v Shanks-Markovina (No. 2), FCA, 950, 2021, pinpoint=14 {{cite news , last1=Antrobus , first1=Blake , title=Truth defence in YouTuber case , url=https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/comedian-asks-for-nsw-deputy-premiers-parliamentary-privilege-to-be-waived-in-defamation-case/news-story/2483aa54a3ea3f108a271b35246c15ab , access-date=23 August 2021 , work=News.com.au , date=9 July 2021 , language=en , archive-date=22 August 2021 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210822232920/https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/comedian-asks-for-nsw-deputy-premiers-parliamentary-privilege-to-be-waived-in-defamation-case/news-story/2483aa54a3ea3f108a271b35246c15ab , url-status=live {{cite news , last1=Mitchell , first1=Georgina , title=John Barilaro sues YouTube comedian Friendlyjordies for defamation , url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/john-barilaro-sues-youtube-comedian-friendlyjordies-for-defamation-20210527-p57vvi.html , access-date=23 August 2021 , work=The Sydney Morning Herald , date=28 May 2021 , language=en , archive-date=28 June 2021 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628235609/https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/john-barilaro-sues-youtube-comedian-friendlyjordies-for-defamation-20210527-p57vvi.html , url-status=live {{Cite AustLII, litigants=Barilaro v Shanks-Markovina (No. 2), FCA, 950, 2021, pinpoint=15 {{cite news , last1=Mitchell , first1=Georgina , title=Jordan Shanks loses preliminary fight in John Barilaro defamation case , url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/jordan-shanks-loses-preliminary-fight-in-john-barilaro-defamation-case-20210813-p58igj.html , access-date=25 August 2021 , work=The Sydney Morning Herald , date=13 August 2021 , language=en , archive-date=25 August 2021 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210825080214/https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/jordan-shanks-loses-preliminary-fight-in-john-barilaro-defamation-case-20210813-p58igj.html , url-status=live {{cite news , last1=Mitchell , first1=Georgina , title=Jordan Shanks denied jury trial in Barilaro defamation case , url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/barilaro-defamation-trial-a-case-for-the-good-sense-of-a-jury-court-told-20210831-p58nig.html , access-date=31 August 2021 , work=The Sydney Morning Herald , date=31 August 2021 , language=en , archive-date=31 August 2021 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831041923/https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/barilaro-defamation-trial-a-case-for-the-good-sense-of-a-jury-court-told-20210831-p58nig.html , url-status=live {{cite web , title=File details - 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