Google deleted a BBC reporter’s article. Is it right?
Google decided to do some summer cleaning, removing some unwanted links from their search engines. They’re taking their cue from the European Union’s highest court’s “right to be forgotten” ruling, put in place a few months ago.
One of the articles removed was written by BBC Economics editor Robert Peston in October 2007, about Stan O’Neal, the former Merrill Lynch boss. However, the subject of the article was not the cause of removal.
“These restrictions have been put in place because somebody who left a comment underneath my article no longer wants the world to see his or her comment,” Peston says.
The ruling says Google can remove information from its search engine if it’s inadequate, irrelevant, no longer relevant or excessive. Peston says there was nothing in the article that met the criteria – and he calls the removal an assault on freedom of the press.
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