The judge’s reasoning on this was very brief. He said at [49]
that once the complaint in respect of a relevant comment was notified, Google Inc
would have had reason to believe that the comment was defamatory, but that this was
“far from saying … that Google Inc would have known, or had reason to believe, that
it had done anything to cause or contribute to the publication of any of these
statements”. But the very considerations that lead me to conclude that Google Inc
arguably became a publisher of the defamatory comments on Byrne v Deane
principles also tend towards the conclusion that following notification it knew or had
reason to believe that what it did caused or contributed to the continued publication of
the comments. The judge in Davison v Habeeb and Others, at [46], thought it
arguable in that case that at some point after notification Google Inc knew or had
reason to believe that its continued hosting of the material in question caused or
contributed to the publication of a defamatory statement. In my view the same can be
said in the present case.