Google Is Being Forced To Censor The History Of Merrill Lynch

The European Union's new law giving people a "right to be forgotten," which requires Google to remove links to information about them, is having exactly the effect its critics predicted: It is censoring the internet, giving new tools that help the rich and powerful (and ordinary folk) hide negative information about them, and letting criminals make their histories disappear.

Exhibit A: Google was required to delete a link to this BBC article about Stan O'Neal, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch. O'Neal led the bank in the mid-2000s, a period when it became dangerously over-exposed to the looming mortgage crisis. When the crisis hit, Merrill's losses were so great the bank had to be sold to Bank of America. O'Neal lost his job, but he exited with a $161.5 million golden parachute.

There is nothing incorrect in the post, in fact it's a rather mild account of O'Neal's incompetence during the period. O'Neal was forced out of the company after he began discussing selling it without informing his board of directors. This is ancient, well-established history. Having it removed from Google doesn't undo the fact that it happened...

Forget.me, a company that expedites Google deletion requests, tells Business Insider that it is fielding 250 requests per day. Here's a breakdown of what is being deleted from the world's greatest search engine:

Do you think you’d know more or less if FReeRepublic got censored because someone here wanted all their content removed

When you realize this site is a mix of good and bad information, it's a wash.

Technology doesn't just make it easy to disseminate helpful information, it also makes it just as easy to disseminate harmful information.

how many folks do you know who actually still bother to even open a book!

Me.

Those of you infatuated with technology, do not yet realize that the soon and ultimate result of technology, will be the loss of freedom--not just through surveillance, but in numerous other ways, ways that are already happening.

When machines do all the work--and that day is fast approaching and will arrive within the working lifetimes of many here--how will you find a job? Most of you won't.

You'll be on the dole.

There will be no way for any of you to improve your lot through hard work, because there won't be any work.

It's a kind of tragedy of the commons, but in this case the common resource that is being used to the max is technology, and the resource that is being destroyed is the human workforce.

Do you include Ted Kennedy’s little kerfuffle on a bridge one night?

You had to wait forty years for Google before you found out about that?

You probably didn't know the moon landings were faked, either, until the internet came along.

“Would that include you birth certificate, or the record of any trial in which you have been convicted? “

No and No.

If you see me at Starbucks every morning that is incidental contact and no big deal.

However if you follow me around all day, recording everywhere I go, everything I say and Everyone I have contact with.

Well, that is stalking and harassment.

I’m sure you get my drift.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.