Google Censorship:: Google Reinstates European Links to Articles From The Guardian - by Mark Scott

Google’s efforts to carry out a European court order on the “right to be forgotten” took another twist on Friday as the company restored search-engine links to several newspaper articles from The Guardian whose delinking had stirred a public furor only a day earlier.

As Google once again declined to explain its decision-making, the episode underscored the potentially bewildering complexities of trying to remove information from the Internet when people request it.

Analysts and public officials, many critical of the way Google is carrying out the court order, say the tumult could have far wider implications.

That is because the order, issued in May by the European Court of Justice, dealt with a right to be forgotten that would be much more broadly interpreted in a sweeping digital privacy law that is now the subject of discussions involving the European Parliament, the European Commission and leaders of the 28 member countries of the European Union.

Critics said the episode highlighted a lack of transparency about how Google is carrying out the court order as it works through requests it has received for removing information, a number that has reached 70,000 and continues to grow.

Raegan MacDonald, the European policy manager in Brussels for the digital rights advocacy group Access, said Friday that it should not be Google’s role to decide what information is relevant.

The recent court decision relates solely relate to search services like Google and Bing, which is run by Microsoft.

But the European privacy legislation would affect any company or website that holds European customers’ digital information. The turmoil surrounding Google’s response to the European court decision could be multiplied and magnified when other companies other than search engines — including social media providers and e-commerce sites — are compelled to respond to people’s requests that their digital data be expunged.

“The scope of the new regulation will be much wider,” said Peter Church, an associate at the law firm Linklaters in London.

The court’s ruling “only applies to people’s names in search results,” he said, adding, “The new rules apply to more than just search engines.

Read more: Google Reinstates European Links to Articles From The Guardian - NYTimes.com