The European “right to be forgotten” is leading Google to censor the Internet. Robert Peston, a BBC economics editor, recently received a notice from Google that informed him that his 2007 blog post about Merrill Lynch and its former CEO Stan O’Neal will no longer appear in “certain searches.”
Read also: Google Grants ‘Right to be Forgotten’ in Europe
The Business Insider said the EU law is causing exactly what the public worried that it might: it censors the Internet and allows rich and powerful people, or criminals, to hide their negative histories from the public.
O’Neal was leading the Merrill Lynch bank when it faced a huge mortgage crisis. The crisis hit so hard that the bank suffered great losses, and O’Neal had to sell it to Bank of America. O’Neal lost his job for the crisis, but he was paid $161.5 million for his retirement. It is unknown if O’Neal submitted the removal request, but it seemed to be triggered by a person named “Peter Dragomer,” who commented on Peston’s 2007 blog post.
Deleting the search results would not undo the history, but it would decrease the chance of young investment bankers, or anyone, getting to know the story. The prevention of public knowledge as a result of the “right to be forgotten” will only expand when it is continually enforced.
When Google censors results like Merrill Lynch, people worry it violates the freedom of the press. According to the Washington Post, EU insisted that the rule does not apply to journalism.
“The ruling does not elevate the right to be forgotten to a ‘super right’ trumping other fundamental rights, such as the freedom of expression or the freedom of the media,” an EU official in charge of judicial affairs said.
The court’s ruling said the “right to be forgotten” does not override the public interest in some situations. In other words, someone cannot request a removal of results if the history or story is in the public interest, things that the public should know for the benefits of society.
Below is a breakdown of what kind of results Google has deleted:
Via Forget.me
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