14 DAY TRIAL // The BBC has announced that it will be putting together a list that will get continually updated to include the list of articles that Google is telling them had to be taken down in Europe due to the “right to be forgotten.”
The controversial rule follows an order from the top European court, who said that people have the right to ask search engines to remove links leading to content that they no longer feel is relevant nowadays.
This is a highly subjective procedure since all search engines, Google included, have to manually go through all these demands to see whether or not the links fall under the ruling or not. There are also quite a few risks, since criminals, sex offenders, bank officials accused of fraud, doctors accused of botched procedures and so on have been sending demands on a regular basis to Google, only to get rejected immediately.
There’s also the fact that aside from the subjectivity of the procedure, there’s also the issue that one individual’s right to be forgotten affects the world’s right to have access to knowledge. By removing these links, the information doesn’t disappear, it just can’t be found on the search engine’s results pages for people looking for a certain individual’s name.
Furthermore, Google is only obligated to remove links on its European localized pages, which means that if anyone goes on Google.com for instance, they’ll be able to find all the information they want.
Google notifies media outlets when it removes links
When Google removes a link, the company notifies the source about this since it would mean a drop in traffic on those respective pages. This enables media sites and blogs to have a clear list of what’s been taken down.
BBC isn’t the only one that has come up with the idea of setting up such a list and it certainly won’t be the last as discussions heat up in Europe regarding the order, as Google is getting accused of trying to skirt around the ruling.
The media outlet says that they’ll be putting together the list, while refraining from republishing the story, or any identifying information. It will be a resource for those who are interested in the debate regarding the right to be forgotten.
The BBC has taken this decision after articles regarding the members of the Real IRA were removed from search results. The individuals in question were convicted, but the report could not be traced when looking for any of the defendants’ names. “It seems to us to be difficult to justify this in the public’s interest,” the BBC said.