Google Urged To Apply Right-To-Be-Forgotten Rule
France has issued an ultimatum for Google to apply the Right-To-Be-Forgotten rule globally. The head of France's regulator CNIL has given Google 15 days to issue a worldwide delisting of "all domains".
Accessing Google.com from within Europe is already quite challenging; Google has de-indexed content for European domains, considering the RTBF a European law that does not apply to the whole Google.com index but only to content displayed in Europe.
Google issued the following statement: "We’ve been working hard to strike the right balance in implementing the European Court’s ruling, co-operating closely with data protection authorities. The ruling focused on services directed to European users, and that’s the approach we are taking in complying with it."
According to Google, less than 5% of European searches come from Google.com, meaning there is no need to censor beyond EU-specific websites.
France and regulators of European privacy argue that Google.com's index retention of content is weakening RTBF. Google could face a £150,000 fee in the event of not complying with France's demand.
In its transparency report Google demonstrated granting about 41% of about 270,000 requests of URL removals (for nearly one million disputed links).
If applied, Google has the right to appeal CNIL's sanctions in court.
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