Google is being swamped with demands from Europeans trying to erase
humiliating links to their past from the world's dominant Internet
search engine.
Nearly 145,000 requests have been made in the European Union and four
other countries by people looking to polish their online reputations,
according to numbers the company released Friday. That's an average of
more than 1,000 requests a day since late May, when Google began
accepting submissions in order to comply with a European court that
ruled some embarrassing information about people's lives can be scrubbed
from search results.
Europe's insistence that its citizens have the "right to be forgotten"
in certain instances has thrust Google into an uncomfortable position
that it sought to avoid. The company has been trying to define what kind
of material merits deletion while also striving to stand by its belief
that all of the world's information should be universally accessible.
Requests can be made by more than 500 million people living in the
European Union's 28 countries, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway
and Switzerland.
The removal requests covered more than 497,000 Web links. Google says it
has jettisoned 42 percent, or more than 200,000, of the troublesome
links. Among all websites, Facebook's social network has had the most
links erased from Google's European search results so far at 3,332.
Google's own YouTube video site has had nearly 2,400 links removed.
The content blocked from Google's search results in Europe could still
appear in listings posted in other parts of the world, including the
U.S. Even in Europe, links to certain results only be excluded in
response to a specific person's name. That means a search about "Imogene
White" might not produce a result tied to an embarrassing episode at a
London hotel, but the link could appear if a different request, such as
"London hotels" were entered.
Google relied on a panel of experts to craft its "right to be forgotten"
standards. The criteria lean toward expunging "outdated or inaccurate
information" while seeking to preserve information in the public
interest, including material detailing crimes or other kinds of
malfeasance, according to Google.
Any request rejected by Google can still be appealed to privacy regulators in Europe.
The Mountain View, California, company provided a glimpse into its
decision-making process with a sampling of requests that have been made
so far. The 15 examples posted Friday suggest Google is more likely to
remove links to a victim or bystander in an incident than to a person
who had a direct involvement.
For instance, Google says it removed a link to an old article about the
murder of a woman's husband in Italy because the story mentioned the
wife. Another woman in Germany who was raped asked Google to remove a
newspaper article about the crime, and the company discarded links
mentioning her name.
Google, though, says it has rejected requests from financial
professionals seeking to remove links to material describing arrests or
convictions for past misconduct. The company also rebuffed a demand from
a "media professional" in the United Kingdom who wanted to erase four
links to embarrassing content that had been previously posted. It also
turned down a request from a former clergyman in the United Kingdom who
wanted to cover up links to articles reporting an investigation into his
alleged sexual abuses.
The whitewashing of search results could extend beyond the countries
covered in the May ruling. A Japanese judge ruled Thursday that Google
should remove search results that hinted a man had been previously tied
to a criminal organization.
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