Politician and pedophile want Google to remove links after EU verdict

Shortly after the ruling of the European Court of Justice, which stated that search engines must remove search results at the request of citizens, Google already received numerous takedown requests. Among them are a politician, a pedophile and a doctor.

That reports the BBC. A former politician who wants to return to power through re-election is said to have submitted a request to Google to remove unwelcome articles about his behavior in politics. A man convicted of possessing child pornography has also asked Google to remove links to his conviction. The British broadcaster also reports that a doctor at the American internet giant has indicated in a takedown request that he no longer wants to see negative reviews from patients in the search results.

After the controversial judgment of the Court of Justice, Google called the ruling ‘disappointing’ and ‘surprising’, but did not want to comment on the possible consequences. The Court ruled that search engines should remove results that infringe privacy, even if the page to which Google links is legitimate. However, the German privacy watchdog reports that Google will open a hotline for takedown requests in at least two weeks in Germany. The mechanism for such a hotline would be largely similar to existing online copyright filing procedures.

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, among others, reacted to the statement as if stung by a wasp. “I have rarely seen such extensive internet censorship,” said Wales. Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Justice, believes that the verdict proves that current European privacy legislation still dates from the ‘digital stone age’ and needs to be modernized.