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THE HIGH COURT has ordered a group of experts to see whether it is possible to remove from the internet a video which falsely accuses an Irish student of not paying a taxi fare.
High Court judge Mr Justice Michael Peart said student Eoin McKeogh has said it is “technically possible” to have the video expunged from internet, but noted that the defendants in the case – including Facebook, Google and YouTube – disagree.
The judge proposed that a group of experts meet with 14 days to examine whether or not it is possible.
Mr Justice Michael Peart said he acknowledged that companies such as Google and Facebook may find it “inconvenient” to cooperate with the removal of the video, or may fear that it could “open that floodgate” but said that it remained the case that “people have availed of technology which is the property of the defendants in order to seriously defame the plaintiff”.
He said he was surprised that Google and Facebook had not been more willing to help McKeogh with the removal of the video.
“They ought in my view render more assistance to him than they appear to be willing to render thus far,” the judge said in his ruling.
McKeogh had taken the case against Facebook, Google, YouTube, Yahoo and CrowdGather and three John Doe internet commenters.
The judge said that McKeogh had been subject to “a miscellany of the most vile, crude, obscene and generally obnoxious comments” on both YouTube and on Facebook after he was misidentified as being the person who appeared in a YouTube video which showed a young man getting out of a taxi and not paying the fare.
The video was posted online by the taxi driver who asked if the man could be identified and one commenter named McKeogh as the culprit. McKeogh had been in Japan on the day the video was taken.
The judge was strongly critical of users of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, saying:
All manner of nasty and seemingly idle minds got to work on the plaintiff [McKeogh], and as seems to happen with apparent impunity nowadays on social media sites, said whatever thing first came into their vacant, idle and meddlesome heads, by posting statements and comments about the plaintiff, so vile and abusive that I ought not to repeat them here.
It must be borne in mind that most of these people do not know the plaintiff and have never met him. Nevertheless they felt free to name and brand him as a criminal.
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3G patchy, 4G almost non existent around Ireland al least. Let’s start on 5G!
So Should I upgrade my iPhone 4 yet or wait?
Your iPhone 4 doesn’t support 4G, so it will only work on 2G and 3G networks. So your phone is behind already
Upgrade to an iphone 7 and to hell with everyone else.
I know its old! What I don’t know is if its better to upgrade now or wait
Your device is capable of a theoretical speed 42.3Mbps so it’s still very good as long as you are near a tower. So really you can make do with your iPhone 4!
Was in the US recently and discovered my iPhone 4 has 4G. Forgot to turn off data and cost me a fortune in 15 secs :-(
Viking this is probably not the case.. Some of the operators advertise their UMTS networks as ’4G’ even though they are 3G. They do this because no one owns the terms ’4G’ or ’3G’ and simply renaming their 3G network as ’4G’ gives the perception that their network is more advanced that their competitors. That’s America for you!
Somebody give that poor man a simple yes or no answer!
Im going to start working on 11G now, by the time they get there Ill probably have invented it and ill be rich!
Start at 1H, totally take everyone by surprise.
3G , 4G …. 5G …..
Could someone please explain these terms in English.
Is this just another way to get more money out of us consumers or are there real benefits to society?
Each is a generation. One generation is an technological evolution of the other. The higher the number, the faster the internet on your phone.
The higher the number the bigger the tumour..
Doesn’t matter a shite when you still can’t get even 2G in certain parts of rural Ireland.
The higher the number, the more you have to pay to use it!!!
It has a lot to do with the consumer product cycle. Just about the time your phone stops holding a battery charge, they develop a new “network technology” so you will buy a new phone to go with the new network and the new contract with your provider that includes a new price.
I still have an old Motorola phone bought in China for 5quid that still works–and it goes a week between charging! Of course, I can’t tweet or update my FB…life’s critical elements are therefore beyond my reach when driving.
I’d settle for a signal 3 are a disaster, now they have 02, will 3 get better or 02 worse ?
We haven’t got 4G yet and no idea when we will.
We do have 4G, it is live.
I think I can live without the power of the xG network.
5g cant even get 2g ffs
Is there a network that uses Henry McG….?
have your say