Thursday, January 8, 2009

Canadian Model Liskula Cohen Sued Google!

Liskula Cohen

Canadian model Liskula Cohen has sued Google for a number of snarky remarks that were made by a blogger using the company's Blogger service. The former Vogue cover girl has been called 'skanky' and 'an old hag' by an anonymous blogger on a website called Skanks.

The defamation suit, filed in Manhattan, seeks a court order compelling Google and its Blogger service to identify the anonymous blogger. Google declined to discuss any specifics, only responding to the claim by saying they sympathize with victims of cyberbullying but "take great care to respect privacy concerns and will only provide information about a user in response to a subpoena or other court order".

While some people are quick to dismiss that the model would have a case, and that she's just looking for attention, I'm not so sure. It's nearly impossible to identify bloggers who don't reveal their real name without the help of the companies that maintain publishing platforms, and a line has to be drawn somewhere regarding what people can say anonymously just because they're using the internet to say it.

The attacks on the blog are rather personal and vicious, and they're targetting Cohen almost exclusively.

source