Brian Goudie and David Hanks - more cyber harassment cases to be filed.

Bangkok, 4th August 2014

Last week my good friend #DavidHanks and I filed a case against Google in Bangkok Central Criminal Court - more will be filed in the next few weeks.

David Hanks

The cases indirectly involve a journalist working in Bangkok, Andrew Drummond, who was already convicted in Pattaya Provincial Criminal Court earlier this year on related charges.

Our case (s)  allege that a large amount of false material and 'photoshopped' images now appear in search results, and that a number of fake 'profiles' have sprung up, and that there has been an incessant campaign of #cyberharassment that has now continued for nearly two years - we believe this is being carried out by a maximum of around 4 or 5 individuals.



We have already positively identified four of the individuals, and criminal cases have been filed against two of them already - in fact I am writing this blog just before I head off to Koh Samui Court for a case today. Two new cases are being filed within the next two weeks against two other individuals who we now have details for.

Our lawyers have now also contacted #Google, and the internet giant is expected to consent to a Court subpoena being issued for Google to provide all possible identifying information to help us track down the bloggers who are now using fake profiles and fake names - technical experts say that even if they are using VPN technology we should be able to identify originating IP addresses. If we can get an IP address, we will then subpoena internet service providers - to cut the technical talk basically we are going to locate these people and prosecute them.

#cyberharassment is extremely difficult to prosecute due to the anonymity of the internet, but this case in Ottawa, Canada shows it can be done.

Following the first case being filed against Google, our lawyers have now put #Bing, #Yahoo and #Facebook on notice that they are next - there are now dozens of fake images, fake profiles and fake blogs throughout the internet, and we have received hundreds of harassing emails and messages, including threats of violence.

There have even been disgusting comments that involve my three year old daughter - and her mother has now also filed a criminal case to prosecute the culprit - that's right, a three year old being forced to file a criminal case to prevent #cyberharassment - that is how low these people are.

The #cyberharassment has now become so serious that the Serious Crime Squad in Victoria, Australia is laising with the Australian Federal Police and the Cyber Crimes Unit to attempt to track down an individual believed to be in Australia who is allegedly responsible for the photoshops.

#BrianGoudie with David Hanks and our lawyer Nattawat Damnaphoen at Koh Samui Court.

UK police are also now involved following harassment of my family in the UK, and charges are expected under the UK Prevention of Harassment Act  (the web site at the centre of the controversy is registered in the UK).

This is the link to the story about the filing against Google.