Former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro has been awarded $715,000 in defamation damages from Google and his YouTube nemesis Jordan Shanks faces possible prosecution for contempt of court.
The now retired MP sued Google, the owner of YouTube, and commentator Jordan Shanks over videos titled “bruz” and “Secret Dictatorship” published on the friendlyjordies channel in 2020.
The videos included claims that Mr Barilaro was a corrupt conman who should be jailed, who committed perjury nine times and engaged in blackmail.
The now-retired MP settled his Federal Court case against Mr Shanks in November when he provided an apology and edited the videos.
Google initially defended the case but later withdrew all defences and conceded the widely viewed videos defamed Mr Barilaro.
On Monday in the Federal Court, Justice Steven Rares found that Google ignored the deeply offensive and racist use of language that Mr Shanks directed at Mr Barilaro in his online video campaign.
The judge said Mr Shanks repeatedly and vindictively used descriptions of him like “wog”, “greasy”, “greasy little scrotum”, “meatball” and innuendos linking him to the Italian mafia.
Justice Rares has referred the conduct of Mr Shanks and Google to the court’s principal registrar to consider proceedings against each for “what appear to be serious contempts of court by bringing improper pressure to bear on Mr Barilaro and his lawyers not to pursue this proceeding”.
The judge will also hear from the parties on what costs order he should make.
