Mr Yeung – chairman of business empire the Emperor Group – claims that Google should cough up compensation because the algorithms used by the search engine lead to suggestions of an alleged connection to triads, reports The Register newspaper.

Human intervention

The 69-year-old is also taking action against several web sites that he claims have posted defamatory content about him.
This is not the first time that Google has been caught in a defamation case, however, it usually claims it cannot be held liable as there is no human intervention in search results.
Sian Lewis, a lawyer at Eversheds in Hong Kong, told the publication that this area of law had not been significantly tested in the south-east Asian jurisdiction.

Watched with interest

‘Much of the legal debate in the cases in the UK has focused on whether the ISP [internet service provider] is a 'publisher' for the purposes of the legislation and therefore liable,’ Ms Lewis said.
‘Hong Kong’s Defamation Ordinance does not define “publisher” and so the Albert Yeung Sau-shing case and the legal analysis of it will be watched with interest by ISP providers and Hong Kong legal practitioners alike.’
Google had no comment on the action.