Google at Loggerheads with French Regulator Over Internet Censorship
In a new development, the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) or National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, a French regulator has asked the company to not only censor some search results in France but also globally and needless it is something that has proven to be unacceptable for the company. The crux of the matter lies in the much discussed 'right to be forgotten' issue in relation to people who might want certain links about them removed from search engine results for a particular set of circumstances and the ruling was passed two years ago by the European Court of Justice. The ruling caused a lot of heartburn since it meant that even factually accurate links would need to be censored if according to that ruling the link in question is outdated or irrelevant to the person in question.
However, CNIL now wants the search engine giant to remove those links from their results page all over the world and not only in Europe or France, as the case may be. Google has stated that they are in now way obligated to censor search results on a global scale if local laws do not stipulate that and are ready to fight the case at France's highest court. The matter has been covered in the Business Insider at length : - "The right to be forgotten stems from a controversial 2014 ruling by the European Court of Justice, and allows European citizens to appeal to have links removed from search results under certain circumstances (if it's outdated or irrelevant, say) - even if the information is factually accurate. However, it only applies within Europe: A French citizen could successfully appeal to Google to have links to websites about them removed from search results seen by people browsing Google from France. But someone living in America who searched for their name would see the full uncensored search results. That's what CNIL wants to change. It wants successful right to be forgotten applications to be applied across the globe to properly protect citizens' privacy."
