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Wikipedia Reports 50 Links From Google 'Forgotten', Issues Transparency Report

Posted by Unknown on from the down-the-memory-hole dept.

netbuzz (955038) writes The Wikimedia Foundation this morning reports that 50 links to Wikipedia from Google have been removed under Europe's "right to be forgotten" regulations, including a page about a notorious Irish bank robber and another about an Italian criminal gang. "We only know about these removals because the involved search engine company chose to send notices to the Wikimedia Foundation. Search engines have no legal obligation to send such notices. Indeed, their ability to continue to do so may be in jeopardy. Since search engines are not required to provide affected sites with notice, other search engines may have removed additional links from their results without our knowledge. This lack of transparent policies and procedures is only one of the many flaws in the European decision." Wikimedia now has a page listing all notifications that search listing were removed. itwbennett also wrote in with Wikimedia news this morning: the Wikimedia foundation published its first ever transparency report, detailing requests to remove or alter content (zero granted, ever) and content removed for copyright violations.

16 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Quick slashdot editors! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Time to get beta forgotten!

  2. As a European... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As a European (Greek) i must beg our American (USA) brothers and sisters to defend their/our "right to remember"...

    1. Re:As a European... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I've gotta say, I didn't see rampant abuse of the law coming so fast.

      Really? Because pretty much as soon as it happened this is what most of us expected.

      The people who want to do this probably started the process the next day.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:As a European... by Thud457 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wikipedia should also link to pages about the relevant laws, and discussing why they're a really bad idea.

      --

      the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    3. Re:As a European... by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Funny

      You might have seen it. I didn't.

      LOL, you know in general, that you are less cynical and paranoid than me is probably not a terrible thing.

      I've just learned to go straight to the worst case scenario, and then give the world a little time to catch up. There's usually a 3-6 month lag time before people go from saying "you're a paranoid loon" to "holy crap". ;-)

      My wife, however, still stands by paranoid loon most of the time.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    4. Re:As a European... by Dishevel · · Score: 3
      I do not care how nice you normally are.

      You do NOT have the right to force someone else to forget things about you!

      Period.

      --
      Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
    5. Re:As a European... by Dishevel · · Score: 3
      Again. This is not about what you would like for yourself. It is what you can and can not force other people to do.

      I can understand your problem with comprehending this. There is an entire group of people in the world that confuse a right (Something that can not be taken from you) with what they want (Stuff people have to do for me or give me).

      Just like those that think healthcare is a right. Might be a good idea, might be a bad idea. Is not a right.

      --
      Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
  3. Kudos by RobertM1968 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bravo to Google and Wikipedia for trying to be transparent about this. The law used seems absurd, and is open for much abuse (think politics, for one).

    --
    StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!
  4. About to be deleted by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 5, Funny

    The funny thing is, both en pages were about to be deleted for lack of notoriety. Now will the all the media coverage, they have suddenly become notable, and my bet is both articles will be retained. Streisand effect at it's finest.

  5. Right to force others to use stone tools by sinij · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Dear humanity, welcome to the Information Age. Why do we call it Information age? Because we developed technologies that allow us to retain significant portion of all information and knowledge produced, from mundane to crucial. As such, your right to forget should not, cannot trump our right to remember.

    1. Re:Right to force others to use stone tools by i+kan+reed · · Score: 4, Funny

      Don't worry, the NSA isn't forgetting you, you're just required to forget some criminals. Hope that helps.

  6. See Europe, I told you this would happen by geekoid · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Right to be forgotten is horrible misguided and will only be a tool to create memory holes.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  7. Noticing an unsurprising trend by timrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Two of the three articles Wikimedia received notices about are for convicted criminals (Gerry Hutch and Renato Vallanzasca) who thrive on publicity for money. Both of them have proved litigious in the past, so it's not surprising they'd want the Wiki pages delisted. However, I can't help but think that running a notoriously violent branch of the Mafia in Milan or robbing banks aren't exactly the kind of things the law hoped would be forgotten.

    1. Re:Noticing an unsurprising trend by KFT · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Given that the results still show up when you search for these names in the EU, it was likely someone else that was at some point in time mentioned on this page (correctly or not, it is Wikipedia after all). So now when you search for this other person, this specific Wikipedia page will not show up.

  8. When will they be re-remembered? by TubeSteak · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If the person dies, can Google re-enable the search result?
    Or have these pages gone into a permanent black hole as far as search engines are concerned?

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  9. A better idea by drinkypoo · · Score: 3

    Let's let technology improve our culture by showing us which things everyone does, and which things almost nobody does but which we need to know about.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"