In Germany, Offensive Autocomplete Is No Laughing Matter

itwbennett writes "We've all had a chuckle over Google's autocomplete results for various search queries. But one German businessman had a less funny experience when he searched for his name on Google.de: The autocomplete suggested search terms where his name was tied with 'Scientology' and 'fraud' (in German, of course). This was back in 2010. In 2012, a German court ruled that the autocomplete terms did not infringe the plaintiff's privacy. Now, a year later, the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe has overturned that ruling and ordered that Google remove offensive search suggestions when notified."

Comments

Good to know

[Anonymous Coward]

That Freedom of speech in Germany is dead. Mental note...

Re:Good to know

[sabri]

Exactly. Once more, this German court has confirmed that Germany has no freedom of speech. Everything that is outside of the realm of what the majority feels is appropriate, is forbidden. Whether that be related to the war, the poor, the economic situation, or prostitution.

Es ist verboten! I'm surprised people haven't applied for political asylum in the U.S. yet. Here, speech has at least some constitutional protection.