Wikipedia founder amazes with ruling in Google privacy case

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, has reacted with surprise to the European Court’s ruling that Google must remove search results that infringe privacy. “I have rarely seen such extensive internet censorship,” says Wales.

According to Wales, there is a good chance that Google will defend itself against the ruling. “It would be stupid not to, because if they have to deal with complaints from everyone who complains about a photo they posted last week, it’s going to be very difficult for them.” Wales made his statements on a British radio station, according to the BBC.

On Tuesday, the European Court ruled that search engines must remove results that violate privacy, even if the page Google links to is legitimate. The EU court examined a Spanish lawsuit in which a Spanish man complained that a 1998 newspaper article mentioning him could be found via Google. Because the newspaper article was about the auction of his house due to debt, he wanted the link removed from Google’s search results.

Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Justice, was more nuanced about the ruling. According to her, the ruling of the EU court proves that the legislation, which still dates from the ‘digital stone age’, must be brought into line with practice.