As reported last week, a French court ordered Google to pay fines of €1,000 unless links to a “defamatory” article are removed from its global network. This prompted many to wonder if Google would start removing links taken out of specific European search results as a result of the Right to Be Forgotten ruling, from its search engines all over the world.
Now, regulators in Brussels have said they want links removed under the ruling to be extended worldwide, which means removing the links from Google’s other search engines including Google.com. This would apply to other search engines like Yahoo and Bing as well, but Google is obviously the top dog and gets most of the focus. Via International Business Times:
Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, chairwoman of the Article 29 Working Group that issued Wednesday’s opinion, and who is also head of France’s data-protection regulator, said:
“Huge social expectations have been created by this ruling. We believe Google, like other search engines, has been surprised by the ruling because they have new obligations to follow now. But the rules are not new; the obligations have applied to websites since 1995. The difference is that it now applies to search engines.”
Falque-Pierrotin added: “The court says the delisting decision has to be effective. These decisions should not be easily circumvented by anybody.”
The group issued a press release on the matter, which you can read here.
Google has indicated that it will study the group’s guidelines carefully, but hasn’t offered much else in the way of comment.
In semi-related news, Google also reached a settlement to remove defaming links from its search engine in a case not connected to the Right to Be Forgotten ruling.
The company also has additional trouble in Europe as a potential break-up of the company is being weighed.
Image via Google
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