Google is going to flag censored, “right to be forgotten” search results

In the wake of a controversial European high court ruling last month that search providers like Google must remove “inadequate, irrelevant, or no longer relevant” materials from search results upon request by EU citizens, the US search giant has expressed a desire to alert users to when such results have been altered. Google’s plan to flag censored search results will likely be similar to how the company notifies usersthat links have been removed due to a copyright takedown request. The search giant aims to place such notifications at the bottom of pages that would have contained links that have been erased in order to alert users of the change, reports The Guardian. The company also plans to include statistics regarding “right to be forgotten” link removal requests in its biannual transparency report.

Google is planning to flag up search results it has censored following a controversial ruling that allows European citizens the right to demand information on them be erased. The search engine is considering placing an alert at the bottom of each page where it has removed links in the wake of the landmark “right to be forgotten” ruling last month. The decision by Europe’s highest court allows people living in Europe to ask for links to “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” material to be removed from search results, although it will still be available on the original web page. Google has since been deluged with tens of thousands of requests frominternet users to take down sensitive information on them since the ruling by the European court of justice (ECJ) on 13 May. It is understood Google is planning to flag censored search results in a similar way to how it alerts users to takedown requests over copyright infringing material. For example, a Google search for “Adele MP3” shows that it has removed a number of results from that page after receiving complaints under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Google is also planning to include information about “right to be forgotten” removals in its biannual transparency report, which reveals the number of government requests worldwide to remove material from its search results.