Mexico Court Fines Google ~$200M Over Defamatory Google-Hosted Blog Post

From Mexico News Daily Friday:

Mexico City court has ordered tech giant Google to pay more than 4 billion pesos (US $196.4 million) to a Mexican lawyer for allowing defamatory information to be published about him on a blogging platform it owns.

Ulrich Richter Morales, a criminal lawyer, initiated legal action against the multinational technology company in 2015 due to its hosting on its Blogger platform of a blog that linked him to drug trafficking, money laundering and the falsification of documents.

The blog, which remains online, but hasn't been updated since 2014, was published under the title Ulrich Richter Morales y sus chingaderas a la patria (Ulrich Richter Morales and his despicable deeds against the homeland). The identity of its creator is not publicly known….

A different news account reports that the fine is $250M (5 billion pesos). Google has said it would appeal. Thanks to the Media Law Resource Center (MLRC) MediaLawDaily for the pointer.