Designing Effective Remedies for Internet Wrongdoing
Event date
5 June 2012
Event time
00:00
Oxford week
Venue
Faculty of Law
Registration
Speaker(s)
Jaani Riordan
Internet intermediaries such as Google, Facebook and Tumblr occupy a central role in modern commerce, social and political life, and the dissemination of ideas. They are the conduits through which all electronic transmissions pass, custodians of our data and gatekeepers to the world’s knowledge. This paper examines the duties owed by intermediaries to disclose information about third parties who use their services to engage in civil wrongdoing. First, I argue that disclosure obligations are justified as the corollaries of safe harbours which immunise intermediaries from primary liability. Second, I propose a new injunctive remedy which would require intermediaries to block or de-index material proved to be tortious but which cannot be removed by other means; although there are significant concerns surrounding the effectiveness, cost and accuracy of existing blocking technologies, access prevention has the potential to form a useful and proportionate remedy. Taken together, these injunctive remedies offer a powerful toolkit with which to uphold the rule of law on the internet and provide meaningful relief to victims of internet wrongdoing. However, their application must be shaped by considerations of proportionality, innovation, internet architecture and the rights of intermediaries and end users.