[Advocacy Advisors] Transparency and "right to be forgotten" notices from search engines

[Stephen LaPorte]

Hi All,

The “right to be forgotten” has been the subject of much discussion and
debate (including on this list),[1] particularly following the May European
Court of Justice judgment ordering Google to delist some links related to a
Spanish citizen.[2] Since then, search engines have been receiving requests
to remove hundreds of thousands of URLs from search results. Google
recently released more information about its right to be forgotten
requests.[3]

The WMF legal team has been watching the “right to be forgotten” issue
closely and considering what legal strategies we should take going forward.
Today, the WMF published its first transparency report[4]—you can read more
in this blog post.[5] WMF held a press briefing announcing our strategy of
advocacy and transparency on link censorship. We will oppose what we see as
a misguided court decision that has resulted in a crude implementation of
the “right to be forgotten.” Lila has also issued a statement,[6] and,
Geoff, WMF’s general counsel, and Michelle Paulson, WMF's legal counsel,
have published a blog on the subject.[7] As the topic is of interest to
this group, we wanted to keep you informed of these recent legal
developments.

Thanks,
Stephen

[1]
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/advocacy_advisors/2014-June/000547.html,
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/advocacy_advisors/2014-June/000539.html
[2] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:62012CJ0131
[3]
https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/file/d/0B8syaai6SSfiT0EwRUFyOENqR3M/edit
[4] http://transparency.wikimedia.org/
[5]
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/08/06/wikimedia-foundation-releases-first-transparency-report/
[6]
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/08/06/european-court-decision-punches-holes-in-free-knowledge/
[7]
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/08/06/wikipedia-pages-censored-in-european-search-results/

-- 
Stephen LaPorte
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation

*NOTICE: As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical
reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community
members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more
on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.*
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