Roughly 10% of European "Right to be Forgotten" requests come for the United Kingdom,
Google has suggested. The requests are made under new European laws which were introduced in May of this year. Google has received 498,737 requests from across Europe for links to be removed - 63,616 of those requests coming from the UK.
The European Court of Justice's ruling means that people can request that Google remove links that are "irrelevant" or "outdated". The burden of which links should be removed is Google's alone (except where court injunctions require Google to remove data). This means, according to company spokesman Peter Barron, Google is both 'judge and jury' and the ruling requires Google to act against its policy of freedom of expression. A number of newspapers and other media outlets have protested what it sees as being a form of censorship. To date Google has removed 18,459 unwanted links at the request of people in the UK.
Examples of people making requests for links to be removed include a media professional who requested Google remove links to articles reporting on content he posted to the Internet. In another instance, a teenager who had reportedly committed 40% of all crime in a British town requested links to information about his court cases be removed. A public official asked for a link to a petition demanding that he should be fired be removed. This came alongside a doctor requesting 50 links to news stories about his "botched procedures" be removed.
Do we have a right to be forgotten or should the Internet be a chronicle of all events for future generations? Let us know you views. Add your comments below.
