LONDON: Google won a lawsuit on Thursday filed by animal rights group Lady Freethinker, which accused the tech giant of profiting from videos of animal abuse featured on its Youtube platform.
Judge Sunil R. Kulkarni ruled that Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., is covered by Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act in the US, which protects internet platforms from litigation based on content posted by their users.
“Section 230 clearly states that ‘no cause of action may be brought and no liability may be imposed under any state or local law that is inconsistent with this section,” the judge said in a statement.
In the lawsuit, filed last year, Lady Freethinker accused the tech company of failing to keep animal abuse videos off its platform, and of profiting from these videos by placing advertisements next to them.
Some of the videos cited by the group include pythons attacking puppies.
The group accused Google of violating federal laws around the depiction of animal cruelty, but the judge found that Lady Freethinker only listed claims involving violations of state and local laws, such as breach of contract and false advertising.
