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Now Google Must Censor Search Results About "Right To Be Forgotten" Removals

Posted by timothy on from the turtles-and-elephants-all-the-way-down dept.

Mark Wilson writes, drolly, that the so-called right to be forgotten "has proved somewhat controversial," and expands on that with a new twist in a post at Beta News: While some see the requirement for Google to remove search results that link to pages that contain information about people that is 'inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant' as a win for privacy, other see it as a form of censorship. To fight back, there have been a number of sites that have started to list the stories Google is forced to stop linking to. In the latest twist, Google has now been ordered to remove links to contemporary news reports about the stories that were previously removed from search results. All clear? Thought not... The Information Commissioner's Office has ordered Google to remove from search results links to nine stories about other search result links removed under the Right to Be Forgotten rules.

8 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. In fact... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...this summary is itself in violation.

  2. Sorry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As a citizen of the EU I will say that I'm so so sorry about this mess. We if anyone should know better.

  3. Re:oh boy here we go. by lgw · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This really seems like something straight from the Ministry of Truth. Throw anything that discredits the ruling party right down the memory hole, along with any future references to it and any references to the fact that something was censored. I guess "Information Commissioner's Office" is the new MiniTrue?

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  4. Search engines search. It's what they do. by GrantRobertson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is ridiculous. If the content is still out there, then Google, and all other search engines should index it. I can see asking them to not cache it, but to use stro,g-arm tactics to FORCE them to actively filter it out of results is, to my mind, a violation of their freedom of speech. Which SHOULD trump the freedom to F up and then hide it from the public.

    Google and MS and all the other search engines should just threaten to pull out of the EU en mass rather than abide by this rediculous law.

    1. Re:Search engines search. It's what they do. by fustakrakich · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Google and MS and all the other search engines should just threaten to pull out of the EU en mass rather than abide by this rediculous law.

      Why? What do they care? It just costs a bit more to operate in Europe. One more layer of shit is not going to kill them. They can make up for it with more advertising and higher rates. Everything's more expensive there anyway. And besides, they are more than accommodating to governments in China and Saudi Arabia, etc.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    2. Re:Search engines search. It's what they do. by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is ridiculous. If the content is still out there, then Google, and all other search engines should index it. I can see asking them to not cache it, but to use stro,g-arm tactics to FORCE them to actively filter it out of results is, to my mind, a violation of their freedom of speech. Which SHOULD trump the freedom to F up and then hide it from the public.

      Exactly. Let's say that you actually had a right to be forgotten which superseded my freedom of speech to talk about events you'd rather everyone forget about. Only saying "Google can't link to this" isn't taking the content down. Shouldn't the law have some sort of cease and desist order built into it so that you could send me a letter saying "Take that blog post down now or else" and then be able to sue me if I didn't? Then, once the page was down, Google (and other search engines) would naturally remove the links from their databases.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    3. Re:Search engines search. It's what they do. by Crashmarik · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The EU really doesn't grok freedom of speech

  5. Those silly Europeans by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.”

    “If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened—that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death.”

    Looks like George Orwell was spot on.

    Then again Oldthinkers unbellyfeel EU right?

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.