Google Ordered to Remove Follow-Up Stories of Right to Be Forgotten Subjects

In the latest twist, Google has now been ordered to remove links to contemporary news reports about the stories that were previously removed from search results. Google has the right to appeal to the General Regulatory Chamber against the notice.

Europe’s “right to be forgotten” ruling shows what a tangled World Wide Web we weave: The United Kingdom Information Commissioner’s Office this week ordered Google to remove links to news stories about links it removed from search results. It was one of several removals that came to light in the wake of the May 2014 decision by the European Union’s top court to create the new right which gives European residents the ability to request that search engines uncouple links containing outdated or irrelevant personal information from searches for their own names. Links to these later news stories, which repeated details of the original criminal offense, were then part of the results displayed when searching for the complainant’s name on Google. Those results can still appear in other searches, but they won’t appear if you search for the name of the person who made the request. Google says the results are of significant public importance and ought to be presented; regulators argue that they undermine the right to be forgotten by surfacing search results that aren’t relevant to that person.

In the ICO’s ruling Smith says that it is “not a case where the information is about an individual in public life or where making the information available would protect the public from improper or unprofessional conduct” and that “the information is not reasonably current”.

Google refused, the order said, on the grounds that the new links were relevant and in the public interest.

Google alerted news organisations to early right to be forgotten link removals through its webmaster tools, which prompted some news organisations to detail which links had been removed in news updates. The ICO ruling concerns nine links that are part of the list of results displayed when a search is made by entering the individual’s name. And plenty of news outlets published the story about the removal.

Smith said: “Let’s be clear”.

Now the ICO wants nine instances of those kinds of follow up stories removed. Google took down links referencing the criminal history of this person in results from searches for their name.

On Thursday, a Google spokeswoman said that the company had received the order and was reviewing it, but declined to comment further.