Oct 17, 2014 11:01 AM EDT
BBC: Google's Link Purge Violates the Public's 'Right To Remember'

Google has been busy removing links to uphold a ruling in Europe that gave people "the right to be forgotten," but some of that information may not disappear.

To shield articles it believes were "wrongly hidden," the BBC plans to publish a list of Web addresses removed by Google, BBC News reported. The BBC has been notified about 46 links to articles that have been removed from Google search so far.

The BBC feels that some of the stories should not have been hidden and the removal of the links violates the public's "right to remember," said editorial policy head David Jordan. One example of a link removed by Google is a blog post written by BBC economics editor Robert Preston; it is believed that someone who left a comment under the article made the "right to be forgotten" request.

Publishers recently urged the Mountain View, Calif.-based company to be more transparent about the removal process, the Guardian reported.

"My recommendation would be: engage, engage with us about the removal of individual links," said Chris Moran, the Guardian's digital audience editor. "I've moved to a position that each case needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis."

Google has been holding a series of consultations to gather public feedback as the company works to implement the ruling, which only applies in Europe and won't affect U.S. search results.

The search giant disagreed with the ruling but will still do its best to comply, Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, wrote in an op-ed earlier this year.

"The examples we've seen so far highlight the difficult value judgments search engines and European society now face," he wrote, "former politicians wanting posts removed that criticize their policies in office; serious, violent criminals asking for articles about their crimes to be deleted; bad reviews for professionals like architects and teachers; comments that people have written themselves (and now regret). In each case, someone wants the information hidden, while others might argue it should be out in the open."

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