new law 2023 for the right to be forgotten here’s how to behave

Your “right to be forgotten” (or rather, right to erasure) in the European Union now extends to bogus claims about you. The EU’s Court of Justice has ruled that Google and similar providers must remove search results on request when they’re “manifestly inaccurate.” People making the demands will have to prove that there are significant falsehoods, but they’ll only have to provide evidence that can be “reasonably” required. They won’t have to obtain a judicial ruling, in other words. The search engine creator can’t be forced to actively participate in the investigation.

The judgment is a response to a case where two investment managers asked Google to delist search results for their names that linked to articles criticizing their business model. The managers argued the claims were false, and also objected to thumbnail images that were allegedly taken out of context. Google declined to honor the request, contending that it didn’t know if the information was accurate.

In a statement to Politico, Google said it “welcome[d]” the ruling and would review the Court of Justice’s decision. It stressed that the affected search results and thumbnails haven’t been available for a long while.