Article Quoting Norwegian Mass Murderer Anders Breivik's Manifesto Gets Caught In Right-To-Be-Forgotten Memory Hole
from the obscuring-history dept
As we've been covering the big push in Europe to use the "right to be forgotten" concept to delete parts of history, each time media outlets have articles removed, it's only acting as an opportunity to bring those articles some renewed attention.And, indeed, the Telegraph in the UK has now released a big list of articles that will lose some Google juice in Europe thanks to right-to-be-forgotten requests. The one getting the most attention is actually just an excerpt from the manifesto of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik.
To understand what's happening, you have to remember that the entire article doesn't disappear from the Google index, it's just that it won't show up if you search on a specific name. And since the RTBF is not supposed to apply to public personalities, chances are it's not Breivik who is the issue here. In fact, the quoted part of the manifesto includes Breivik talking about his godmother, a political refugee from Chile, and a few other foreign friends he had as a kid, as part of his proof that he's "not a racist." Most of his childhood friends only have their first names listed, but the godmother is named in full -- and you might understand why she's not exactly happy to be connected to a sociopathic mass murderer whenever someone Googles her name.
But... is that really a legitimate reason to remove the search result? It still seems immensely troubling that the end result of this is to remove accurate responses to research queries. Yes, it may be embarrassing, depressing and even emotionally stressful to see such Google results -- but it's also accurate. Shouldn't we be more focused on dealing with the issues of why it's so problematic to have your name associated in this manner instead of trying to pretend it never happened at all?
![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: anders breivik, europe, free speech, history, manifesto, right to be forgotten
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Nice job Europe.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Interviewees Remorse?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/5721573/Property-market-renting-is-all-the-rage.html
The subjects of the article must have agreed to be interviewed, have their photographs taken, etc.. Why should they be able to have this removed from search results? The article is only 5 years old, the family must have been aware that they would be putting themselves permanently in Google search results.
There doesn't seem to be anything in the comments that would warrant removal, so I am assuming it is the main article, and one or more of "Paul and Fiona Godwin-Brown and their two boys Tom and Charlie" who requested removal.
It might also have been "Duncan Clerkin", who was also quoted. Or perhaps "Yolande Barnes, head of research at Savills" (all names gratuitously included to provide more links to them).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
How long before someone makes...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
And before you now cry out loud "Censorship! Free Speech! ...!" please take the time and tell me what the added value of her name is. Ok, the name is in the quoted part of the manifesto. And for exactly what reason? Why is the name important? I'm sure there are plenty of reasons I just cannot image (stupid European), right? Sorry but I think this is perhaps the fault of the removed article (even if it's free speech - this doesn't make things magically right). And this example looks just like another bad pick.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: How long before someone makes...
So it should be possible to get the google.com results, get the google europe results, then subtract the two, especially the top ten hits.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]