[x-pubpol] The "Right to Be Forgotten": A Threat We Dare Not Forget

[Joly MacFie]

Opinion piece from Lauren Weinstein

                http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000938.html


We know that search engines like Google are required to abide by
> valid, legal orders concerning the removal of search results.  To
> date, these have been relatively limited in terms of scope, though
> there are already many egregious examples of what most of us would
> probably agree are inappropriate takedown orders.
>


> The thankfully now moribund SOPA and PIPA legislation would likely
> have mandated the removal of search results involving the location of
> materials that the MPAA, RIAA, and other groups felt were illicit, and
> in the process would have done enormously wide damages across the Net.
> But at least SOPA/PIPA supporters weren't trying to erase from memory
> even the existence of those songs and films!  They obviously didn't
> want us to forget that The Beatles were a great group, or that
> "Citizen Kane" is a wonderful film.
>


> Today though, governments around the world and allied pressure groups,
> especially in Europe but also elsewhere, even here in the U.S., are
> pushing a dangerous censorship concept much more akin to Stalin's
> alteration and censorship of photos than to even the controls envisioned
> by SOPA and PIPA ( http://j.mp/yZ7wA0 [Wikipedia] ).
>


> Generally called the "right to be forgotten" (RTBF), this ultimately
> insidious concept embodies the view that governments, corporations,
> other organizations -- and individuals -- should have what amounts to
> absolute control over related publicly available information,
> especially in search engine results.


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