A Supreme Court judge in New York City has given Google 15 days to provide the court with whatever identity information it has on commenter(s) that left a defamatory comments on YouTube videos of Columbia Business School grad and former actress and model Carla Franklin, including the word “whore”.
Franklin’s lawyer, David Fish, petitioned the court in August to force Google to turn over what we’re assuming is the IP addresses of each of the commenters, which is probably all Google has, though it possibly could have more information.
The filing had said that the comments on YouTube, “were made with the intention to harm Ms. Franklin’s reputation and interfere with her relationships, employment and livelihood,” and that if Franklin and her legal team can determine the identity of the commenter(s), they will sue for, “personal humiliation, mental anguish and damage to her reputation.”
Fish told the NY Post at the time of the suit that they believe it might just be one person posing as three (the usernames were greyspector09, Jimmy Jean008 and JoeBloom08), and according to the NY Post, Fish said in August that Franklin has a, “fairly good idea who was doing this [but] we want to make 100 percent sure before we file suit.”
We’re unaware of a court previously ordering YouTube to reveal info about commenters, so this could very well set a legal precedent. We’ll continue to follow the case to see if Franklin and her lawyer do indeed confirm the identity of the commenter(s) and if so, if they are able to win a defamatory suit in court.
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