Google Must Take Down 'Manifestly Inaccurate' Search Results if Proven by Users, EU Top Court Says

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said users only have to provide evidence that can reasonably be required of them to find.

By Reuters | Updated: 8 December 2022 16:59 IST

Google Must Take Down 'Manifestly Inaccurate' Search Results if Proven by Users, EU Top Court Says

Photo Credit: Reuters

Judges said proof does not have to come from a judicial decision against website publishers

Highlights

Google said that the content had been offline for a long time
The CJEU in 2014 enshrined the right to be forgotten
Right to be forgotten can be ignored for exercising right of information

Alphabet unit Google must remove data from online search results if users can prove it is inaccurate, Europe's top court said on Thursday.

Free speech advocates and supporters of privacy rights have clashed in recent years over people's "right to be forgotten" online, meaning that they should be able to remove their digital traces from the internet.

The case before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) concerned two executives from a group of investment companies who had asked Google to remove search results linking their names to certain articles criticising the group's investment model.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

They also wanted Google to remove thumbnail photos of them from search results. The company rejected the requests, saying it did not know whether the information in the articles was accurate or not.

A German court subsequently sought advice from the CJEU on the balance between the right to be forgotten and the right to freedom of expression and information.

"The operator of a search engine must de-reference information found in the referenced content where the person requesting de-referencing proves that such information is manifestly inaccurate," the Court of Justice of the European Union said.

Google Set to Use 'Pre-Bunking' Videos to Fight Misinformation in India

To avoid an excessive burden on users, judges said such proof does not have to come from a judicial decision against website publishers and that users only have to provide evidence that can reasonably be required of them to find.

Google said the links and thumbnails in question were no longer available through web search and image search and that the content had been offline for a long time.

"Since 2014, we've worked hard to implement the right to be forgotten in Europe, and to strike a sensible balance between people's rights of access to information and privacy," a spokesperson said.

The same court in 2014 enshrined the right to be forgotten, saying that people could ask search engines like Google to remove inadequate or irrelevant information from web results appearing under searches for their names.

The judgment preceded landmark EU privacy rules that went into effect in 2018 and state that the right to be forgotten is excluded where the processing of personal data is necessary for the exercise of the right of information.

The case is C-460/20 Google (Déréférencement d'un contenu prétendument inexact).

What are the best smartphones you can buy in India in 2022? These are the phones we think stood out the most this year Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.