Google To Remove Right-To-Be-Forgotten Links From All European Domains, Including Google.com

Google had been resisting European demands that the company remove links purged under the Right to Be Forgotten (RTBF) rule from its global index. Instead the company had been expunging them from domestic search results in individual European countries.

This meant that European users could access the disputed content simply by searching on Google.com. Google took the position that RTBF would only apply to European domain (e.g., .fr) users:

We’ve been working hard to strike the right balance in implementing the European Court’s ruling, co-operating closely with data protection authorities. The ruling focused on services directed to European users, and that’s the approach we are taking in complying with it.

Arguing that by simply searching on Google.com users could circumvent the intent of RTBF, The Commission Nationale de l’informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) threatened to fine the company €150,000 ($169,000) for failing to apply the rule on a worldwide basis.

Google then appealed CNIL’s order. However, according to Reuters, the company has now decided to remove all RTBF content from all its domains in Europe. This is according to Reuters; however we independently confirmed the accuracy of the report with Google.

As a practical matter RTBF-purged links will be removed from search indexes for individual European countries and Google.com throughout Europe. So an individual user could not access a removed link anywhere from within Europe.

The ban would not apply outside of Europe. To date Google has removed roughly 43 percent of submitted links or a total of 1.4 million URLs.

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