Google Rejects France’s Call For Extension Of ‘Right To Be Forgotten’

Last year, the European Court of Justice ruled that citizens of Europe can ask Google, as well as other search engines, to remove embarrassing or debilitating content about them from search queries, but only European queries. This is known as the “Right To Be Forgotten.” This means if someone from a European country came across extremely negative content about them and Google links to that content, then that person could ask Google to remove links to that content under the “Right To Be Forgotten.”

Google pointed out that there are plenty of examples of content that is legal in some countries and illegal in others. For example, some speech that is critical of Ataturk is criminalized in Turkey, and some speech that is critical of the King of Thailand is criminalized.

However, a France data protection authority (CNIL) and Google are at odds because the CNIL wants to extend the “Right To Be Forgotten” policy, according to USA Today.

The Toronto Sun reported that CNIL wants Google to extend the policy globally. If Google doesn’t comply, then the company may face possible fines. The order by CNIL came in June.

On Thursday, Google responded to the order and said a single country shouldn’t control what content someone in a second country can access. Google noted that they were respectfully disagreeing with CNIL’s decision, and they asked CNIL to withdraw from the notice.

As for whether or not CNIL will agree to Google and withdraw, they replied and said that they would look at Google’s appeal. Google will receive an answer in two months.

There are some legal experts, as well as regulators in Europe, who believe Google should extend the policy. Some say that it is too easy to switch from one version of Google to another version of Google. For example, all one user from America has to do is type in the term “Google France” into Google, and then go to the French version of Google.

When the policy went into effect last year, Google had to deal with an influx of requests from people who wanted to be “forgotten.” As the Inquisitr reported, at the time, Google was dealing with more than 70,000 requests.

Those who want to be “forgotten” have to fill out a form and submit it to Google, and they will review it and either grant the request or reject it. If the request is rejected, the person will need to appeal the decision to their data protection agency.

[Image by Scott Barbour/Getty Images]