Model Liskula Cohen sues Google over blogger's ‘skank’ comment
A Vogue cover girl is suing Google in an attempt to unmask the blogger who trashed her as a “skank” and an “old hag.” — Liskula Cohen, a blond beauty who has modeled for Giorgio Armani and Versace, made headlines last year …
Context & Ripple Effects
Cohen's suit lands in a long line of cases dragging Google into court as a stand-in for conduct on its platforms — coverage as far back as 2007 was already scoffing at plaintiffs who sued Google without understanding internet law. What makes this one different is the target: not damages from Google itself, but forcing the company to hand over the identity behind an anonymous Blogger account.
First-order effects
- Google is now legally positioned as the gatekeeper of a user's anonymity — it must decide whether to comply with, contest, or deflect Cohen's demand to unmask the Blogger author.
- The anonymous blogger, if identified, becomes directly exposed to a defamation claim, turning a pseudonymous insult into a real-world legal liability.
Second-order effects
- Other public figures defamed online gain a template: sue the platform first to pierce anonymity, then pursue the individual — raising litigation volume and compliance costs for Blogger and rivals.
- A precedent either way reshapes anonymous blogging culture: aggressive de-anonymization demands could chill harsh commentary, while resistance would push plaintiffs toward intermediaries with weaker protections.
Third-order effects
- If courts keep treating platforms as responsible for third-party content and identities, the pattern points toward codified rules balancing anonymity against reputation — the same tension later tested when Google faced a European privacy test case over what it must remove or reveal.
- The line between 'the platform said it' and 'a user said it' keeps blurring — a trajectory visible decades later when [[a:1166072|Epstein victims sued over Google's own search and AI outputs publishing their personal information]], suggesting liability eventually attaches to the machine, not just the messenger.
The trend: Courts are steadily converting platforms from neutral hosts into accountable parties for what flows through them — whether user comments or algorithmic output — making anonymity and intermediary immunity progressively harder to defend.