Critics of the ruling consider it a win for censorship and a blow to freedom of expression; Google considers it burdensome but has had to take action; some have called for the principle’s expansion outside Europe; it has sparked issues such as this ICO order.
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To fight back, there have been a number of sites that have started to list the stories Google is forced to stop linking to.
When a subject is removed from Google’s search results after a right to be forgotten request has been submitted, sometimes that in and of itself creates news stories. All clear? Thought not…
On Wednesday, the Information Commissioner’s Office, a watchdog agency in the United Kingdom, ordered that Google remove those news articles about the removal of the original news articles. “It is wrong of them to now refuse to remove newer links that reveal the same details and have the same negative impact”.
The U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office issued the order this week, giving Google 35 days to remove the links.
“That interest can be adequately and properly met without a search made on the basis of the complainant’s name”, the ruling concluded. The links are to web pages that include details of a minor criminal offense committed by the individual nearly ten years ago.
The removal in question appears to be that of a story about a decade-old shoplifting conviction, according to details supplied in the order.
Google alerted news organisations to early right to be forgotten link removals through its webmaster tools, which prompted some news organisations to detail which links had been removed in news updates.
“The commission does not dispute that journalistic content relating to decisions to delist search results may be newsworthy and in the public interest”, Deputy Information Commissioner David Smith wrote in a statement, acknowledging that the IC was asking that Google block access to legitimate journalism.
Thursday’s order, while it applies only in the United Kingdom, could provide an example for other countries, potentially provoking a new wave of takedown requests of stories about takedown requests, and a subsequent wave of stories about those new requests.
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“We understand that links being removed…is something that newspapers want to write about”. And we understand that people need to be able to find these stories through search engines like Google.
