Google has started removing search results in compliance with a European court ruling around the “right to be forgotten” – but some of the news items that have been targeted are raising new objections.
A Google statement about the process reads: “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.”
However, there has been some criticism over the move, with results to a number of news reports being removed following requests from people named in those reports.
In fact, says at least one observer, the removal of the search results could be seen as press censorship.
Danny Sullivan, writing on his Marketingland.com blog, says searches on Google in Europe fail to turn up news stories relating to certain people – although they remain on the original news sites.
Google has been sending notices to news outlets when the search results to their stories are removed.
Sullivan believes the removals are not happening in a considered way, but rather according to a flat EU Court of Justice decree, and amount to a de facto censorship of the press.
