Google taking requests to censor results in Europe

Associated Press ^ | May 30, 2014 12:14 AM EDT | Michael Liedtke

[Olog-hai]

Google is starting to accept requests from Europeans who want to erase unflattering information from the results produced by the world’s dominant search engine.

The demands can be submitted on a Web page that Google opened late Thursday in response to a landmark ruling issued two weeks ago by Europe’s highest court.

The decision gives Europeans the means to polish their online reputations by petitioning Google and other search engines to remove potentially damaging links to newspaper articles and other websites with embarrassing information about their past activities. […]

It’s unclear when the whitewashing will begin. So far, Google has only said it will happen soon. …

[Olog-hai]

So it’s the “right” to only have the evil be forgotten. (Unrepented of, of course.)

[GeronL]

Bump

[HiTech RedNeck]

The whiteout only applies to results delivered in Europe — if someone uses a US proxy he can still see all the dirt.

[HiTech RedNeck]

And anyhow what does repentance even have to do with this? David’s murder is still in the bible.

[Olog-hai]

But Google’s not the Bible.

[Iron Munro]

Winston Smith Lives !!!

[Gay State Conservative]

I was in Hong Kong recently.When you search google there it defaults to the Chinese version (.cn).Googe “Tienanmen Square” on the Chinese version and all you get are beautiful,peaceful photos.Looks like Europe is going in the same direction.

[formosa]

Hopefully Google will censor themselves out of business. I use only duckduckgo these days.

[HiTech RedNeck]

That does not explain why Google should need to only take down news about repented sins.

[Alvin Diogenes]

The whiteout only applies to results delivered in Europe — if someone uses a US proxy he can still see all the dirt.

I would hope you're right about this, but do you have a source that actually says that Google will only apply the takedown to search requests where either the client or the server is in the EU?

[Olog-hai]

You took me too literally, I think.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well, moralizers should expect to be moralized at :-)

[HiTech RedNeck]

I do not know what they intend to do in the case of European client and American server, they could easily block in that case too, but I speak of American proxy. So that as far as the American server knows, the web browser is in America too even if it is being viewed in Amsterdam. Some large corporate proxies are like that.

[Alvin Diogenes]

I've seen nothing from Google that suggests that they won't apply the takedown to all search queries, including those where both the client and server are outside the EU.

Have you seen a definitive statement from Google on this?

[Alvin Diogenes]

Here's an article from the Independent, in the UK, that says you're right:

Because the ruling only applies to Google’s European sites, (google.co.uk, .it, .fr etc) a query on google.com would still throw up the offending material.

So, if the Independent is right, at least the EU isn't trying to control what happens elsewhere in the world.