Payam Tamiz v Google Inc. and Another

Hearing date: 16 February 2012

Approved Judgment

I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A para 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this Judgment and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic.

The parties

In this libel action Mr Payam Tamiz has sued both Google Inc and Google UK Ltd (as, respectively, First and Second Defendants) in relation to eight comments which are said to be defamatory of him and which were posted on a blog bearing the name "London Muslim" at various times between 28 and 30 April 2011. He does not sue in relation to the original blog or article to which these comments related, nor in respect of some 37 other comments contained in the same thread. Nevertheless, it may be that such matters would need to be taken into account as part of the context for the words sued upon.

Google Inc is a corporation registered in Delaware, in the USA, and its principal place of business is in California. On 22 September 2011 Mr Tamiz was granted permission by Master Eyre to serve the claim form on Google Inc in California. It is now sought by Ms Evans on its behalf to have that order (which was made, in the usual way, on a without notice application) set aside in accordance with the provisions of CPR Part 11(1) and (6).

Ms Evans also asks that the court should declare that there is no jurisdiction to try the claim; alternatively, should the court hold that there is such jurisdiction, that it should not be exercised.

Google Inc provides a range of Internet services including via Blogger. com (also based in and managed from the USA). This is described as a "platform" which allows any Internet user, in any part of the world, to create an independent blog free of charge. If someone uses that service, without having his/her own web address ("URL"), then Blogger. com allows users to host their blogs on Blogger. com URLs. This was the case with the blog on which the comments complained of in these proceedings were posted. Google UK Ltd simply carries on a sales support and marketing business within this jurisdiction. It does not operate or control Blogger. com and has therefore been joined in these proceedings inappropriately. This was explained in a defence served on 8 December 2011. The English company takes no part in the applications before me.

It seems that Mr Tamiz was in the news for a brief period in or about April 2011 in relation to allegations that he had resigned as a Conservative Party candidate for local elections in Thanet after making inappropriate remarks. Indeed, this was the subject of the original post or article on the London Muslim blog, to which the eight comments sued upon were supposed to be in response. It had been headed "Tory Muslim candidate Payam Tamiz resigns after calling girls 'sluts'". As I have already made clear, Mr Tamiz has brought no proceedings against either the original blogger or the individual commentators, who would undoubtedly be responsible in law for any defamatory words they had posted. This may not be altogether surprising, since most of these communications are made anonymously and it is not easy to track down who was responsible. In the absence of any such problems, however, Mr Tamiz has sued in respect of an article appearing (originally on 27 April 2011) in the Evening Standard by Joe Murphy, described as Political Editor, and dealing with the allegation that he had resigned after it had been discovered that his Facebook site referred to women as "sluts".

The words complained of

I shall set out the initial blog or article appearing on the London Muslim website on 27 April simply because it is relevant background context for what followed. The words appeared under a photograph of Mr Tamiz:

"Payam Tamiz a Tory Muslim council candidate with a 5 o'clock shadow has resigned from the party after calling Thanet girls 'sluts'.

Tamiz who on his Twitter page describes himself as an 'ambitious British Muslim' is bizarrely studying law so one would have though (sic) this Tory prat with Star Trek Spock ears might have engaged the odd brain cell before making these offensive remarks."

Thereafter a range of comments appears and I shall set out only those complained of, which have been conveniently labelled A to H for ease of reference.

Comment A

"Anonymous said …

I know Mr Tamiz very well and am surprised that it has taken this long for all this to come out, Payam is a known drug dealer in thanet and has been taken to court for theft from his employers tescos in Ramsgate. His whole family are criminals his mother Mrs Sohela Tamiz has several convictions for theft and shoplifting and got sentenced at maidstone crown court

2. April 2011 14:53"

Comment B

"Anonymous said …

Can't deny what he said is true but isn't this the same Payam Tamiz that use to take girls back to his 'houseparties' practically every weekend with his friends and sleep with them? Hypocritical much?

3. April 2011 12:28"

Comment C

"Anonymous said …

The blokes a class A prat not only for the comments he recently made. He may have a few half wits as a following but I speak for the people that have known payam for several years and have been on the reciving (sic) end of his abuse a disrespect and his not such a nice person. I'm sure we'll be hearing alot more from his past which will paint a true picture of him.

2. April 2011 23:04"

Comment D

"Anonymous said …

So Mr Whacker is a voilent (sic) racist, certainly doesn't like white people does he?!

If you'd ever been to Margate you would find the majority are white women, even those from the Eastern bloc. To tar all Margate women with the word slut is very derogatory, how does he know? Does he make a habit of chasing women around? Or as someone implys above, does he sell drugs to them?

2. April 23:51"

(Only the last two questions are the subject of complaint.)

Comment E

"Anonymous said …

I've only read that Payams claiming to be 21, I'm sure he told me that his older than that. Fake asylum claim was it. The good old home office and all us wankers that pay tax for waste of spaces like him.

29 April 2011 01:09"

Comment F

"Anonymous said …

Before Payam starts to call women sluts it might be an idea for him to look closer to home, how may (sic) brothers and sisters has he got, all with different fathers. I thought Muslim men were the one who were meant to have more than one wife, not the women with more than one husband. Is there not a 30 year gap between the ages of his younger to older brother and sister. Look closer to home pal.

29 April 2011 09:40"

Comment G

"Anonymous said …

The only reason his callig (sic) girls slags is cos he aint getting none himself. And he blames a relationship breakup for his comments, but the only problem with that being is that Payams never had a girlfriend since I known him and thats been a couple of years, that makes him single at the time.

Poor little Payam, has you giving it the large one to your friends blown up in your face and back fired.

It couldn't have happeneded (sic) to a better person, his a little snake and he knows it. I'd put my money on him still being a virgin, not being funny but you only got to look at his picture to work that out.

29 April 2011 21:26"

Comment H

"Anonymous said …

And his brothers girl friend is an escort girl, Claudine Lear, look closer to home pal.

29 April 2011 18:43"

A summary of the case advanced by Google Inc

In general terms, the stance of Google Inc is that it has no control over any of this content. It is thus not a publisher of the material but merely a neutral service provider. In due course, following the Claimant's complaint, Google Inc after a considerable delay passed it on to the blogger in question, who remains unidentified so far as the Claimant is concerned, and he took all the material down, along with the original article, on a voluntary basis. There is no evidence that it has been re-posted at any time since.

Google Inc makes the point that it has no way of knowing whether the comments complained of were true or not (or subject to some other defence in law). It argues that it cannot reasonably be expected to investigate and determine the truth or falsity of allegations made by bloggers.

One needs to be wary of analogies when considering modern technology, but it may perhaps be said that the position is, according to Google Inc, rather as though it owned a wall on which various people had chosen to inscribe graffiti. It does not regard itself as being more responsible for the content of these graffiti than would the owner of such a wall.

Against this background, Ms Evans has developed the following arguments. First, she submits that the particulars of claim do not go so far as asserting that the words complained of have been accessed or downloaded by a substantial number of readers in this jurisdiction. On that ground alone, she argues that the Claimant has not even pleaded that a "real and substantial tort" has been committed in this jurisdiction: see Jameel (Yousef) v Dow Jones & Co Inc [2005] QB 946. He sought to deal with this by introducing a skeleton argument and a number of witness statements shortly before the hearing. He being a litigant in person, no objection was taken to this course. Ms Evans also argues, however, that in any event the content of the words complained of does not reach what she describes as the necessary "threshold of seriousness required to...