LONDON (AFP) – Google has
restricted access to a BBC blog
posting and several British
newspaper stories under a legal
ruling granting people a right to
be “forgotten” in search engines,
it emerged on Thursday.
BBC economics editor Robert
Peston complained that Google
had “killed this example of my
journalism” after being informed
that a 2007 posting about
former Merrill Lynch chairman
Stan O’Neal had been removed
from certain searches in Europe.
The Guardian newspaper also
said it had been notified that six
links to its stories had been
removed from search results,
three of them about a 2010
controversy involving a now-
retired Scottish Premier League
referee.
The newspaper said it was given
no reason and had no appeal
against the decision, the result of
a ruling by the European Court of
Justice in May that the paper said
was a “huge, if indirect,
challenge to press freedom”.
The court ruled that individuals
have the right to have links to
information about them deleted
from searches in certain
circumstances, such as if the data
is outdated or inaccurate.
Google, the world’s leading
search engine, has said that each
request would be examined
individually to determine
whether it met the ruling’s
criteria.
Mail Online, the world’s biggest
news site, said it had received
notification that links to a story
about the same Scottish referee,
Dougie McDonald, had been
removed from certain searches.
Other stories restricted include
one about a couple caught
having sex on a train, and
another about a Muslim man
who accused the airline Cathay
Pacific of refusing to employ him
because of his name.
- ‘Like burning books’ -
“These examples show what a
nonsense the right to be
forgotten is. It is the equivalent
of going into libraries and
burning books you don’t like,”
said Martin Clarke, the publisher
of Mail Online.
He said the website would
regularly publish lists of articles
removed from Google’s European
search results, while the BBC and
The Guardian also published links
to the restricted stories.
The links remain visible on
Google.com, the US version of the
site, and the restrictions only
appear to relate to certain search
terms.
A commentary in The Guardian
noted that a search for Dougie
McDonald no longer brought up
its story on Google.co.uk, but a
search for “Scottish referee who
lied” worked fine.
According to the story, McDonald
was found to have lied about his
reasons for granting a penalty in
a Celtic v Dundee United match.
Google told the BBC that it had
since received 50,000 requests
for articles to be removed,
although they remain
anonymous.
A spokeswoman told AFP: “We
have recently started taking
action on the removals requests
we’ve received after the
European Court of Justice
decision.
“This is a new and evolving
process for us. We’ll continue to
listen to feedback and will also
work with data protection
authorities and others as we
comply with the ruling,” she said.
Source Vanguardng
