Blogger to sue Google for US$15 million

A blogger outed by Google after a court order has said she will sue the search giant for $15 million.

Rosemary Port, a 29-year-old Fashion Institute of Technology student, was exposed after she posted a comment about model Liskula Cohen, calling her a ‘skank’ and an “old hag” on her anonymous blog ‘Skanks in NYC’.

Cohen sued and the court found in her favour, forcing Google to reveal her identity. Cohen has now said she will not take further legal action but Post told the New York Daily News that the case had blown way out of proportion.

“By going to the press, she defamed herself,” Port said.

“Before her suit, there were probably two hits on my web site: One from me looking at it, and one from her looking at it. That was before it became a spectacle. I feel my right to privacy has been violated.”

She is now suing Google for "breached its fiduciary duty to protect her expectation of anonymity," and has retained Salvatore Strazzullo, a high powered lawyer, to take action against the company.

"When I was being defended by attorneys for Google, I thought my right to privacy was being protected," Port said.

"But that right fell through the cracks. Without any warning, I was put on a silver platter for the press to attack me. I would think that a multi-billion dollar conglomerate would protect the rights of all its users."

“I'm ready to take this all the way to the Supreme Court,” Strazzullo said.

“Our Founding Fathers wrote 'The Federalist Papers' under pseudonyms. Inherent in the First Amendment is the right to speak anonymously. Shouldn't that right extend to the new public square of the Internet?”

The case caused a storm on the blogosphere and beyond, since it meant case law being established that would end the anonymity that some bloggers enjoy. While papers have been active in outing some bloggers the legal status of such practices has been up in the air in the US, although not so in the UK.