Minister warns terrorists are exploiting ‘right to be forgotten’ law
Culture secretary Sajid Javid has warned that terrorists and criminals have been amongst the beneficiaries of controversial European ‘right to be forgotten’ laws – which enshrine the rights to request removal of links to embarrassing or damaging information from search engines.
In a stinging attack on the system Javid dubbed it ‘censorship by the back door’ as Google divulged that it had been swamped by 200,000 requests from individuals petitioning to have their online pasts erased with the bulk of them emanating from Britain, France and Germany.
Thus far Google has complied with 42 per cent of these requests but the law has become the latest source of friction between the UK government and Europe in the meantime.
Speaking to the Society of Editors Javid said: “Criminals are having their convictions airbrushed from history even if they have since committed other, similar crimes.
“Terrorists have ordered Google to cover up stories about their trials. The search engine’s own lawyer has warned of unscrupulous companies abusing the system so that links to their competitors are hidden. The ‘right to be forgotten’ is censorship by the back door.
“Stories are not being deleted from archives because of the ruling, but if they cannot be found by the search engines they may as well not be there at all.”
A growing number of media outlets also warn of the pernicious effect on the availability of news; with the BBC and Wikipedia both weighing in with reservations over unintended consequences.