The American and European legal systems vary greatly especially when it comes to liability and data privacy. Per U.S. law, Google has very little restrictions when it comes to choosing what to leave up or take down. Google is protected in the U.S. by the First Amendment speech rights. The Communications Decency Act, Section 230 specifically protects search engines and internet service providers from being sued for liable if they do not screen content which has been produced by other parties. Section 230 is not an all encompassing document and Google has to remove content which is linked to material that is infringing on a copyright, or any type of “speech” which is considered to be criminal conduct. Today Google has its own removal policies and these are sometimes driven by the public or in interest of customer relations. That may all soon come under closer scrutiny.
The European legal system recently ruled against Google by indicating that Google can be forced to clean up search results that might be embarrassing to someone. The European court’s ruling that Google must delete data that is outdated or irrelevant violates American speech rights. This ruling may cause legal advocates in America to consider adjusting Section 230.
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