“Right To Be Forgotten” To Blame For Removal Of 50 Wikipedia Links From EU Search Results

According to a release today from the Wikimedia Foundation, 50 links to its Wikipedia site have been removed from Google search results in Europe on account of the recent Right to Be Forgotten legislation. From the release: As of July 18, Google has received more than 91,000 removal requests involving more than 328,000 links; of […]

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According to a release today from the Wikimedia Foundation, 50 links to its Wikipedia site have been removed from Google search results in Europe on account of the recent Right to Be Forgotten legislation.

From the release:

As of July 18, Google has received more than 91,000 removal requests involving more than 328,000 links; of these, more than 50% of the URLs processed have been removed. More than fifty of these links were to content on Wikipedia.

Wikimedia has issued a statement opposing the Right to be Forgotten decision and, “…its implications for free knowledge.” It claimed it was only made aware of the recent removal of links to its site because the search company sent notices to the Wikimedia Foundation:

Search engines have no legal obligation to send such notices. Indeed, their ability to continue to do so may be in jeopardy. Since search engines are not required to provide affected sites with notice, other search engines may have removed additional links from their results without our knowledge. This lack of transparent policies and procedures is only one of many flaws in the European decision.

To continue its goal toward more transparency around Right to be Forgotten, the Wikimedia Foundation has launched a dedicated page where it intends to post its link removal notices.

You can read more about the case that resulted in Europe’s Right to Be Forgotten decision here: The “Right To Be Forgotten” – EU Court Give People Ability To Delete Their Google Search Results.


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About the author

Amy Gesenhues
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Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Search Engine Land, MarTech and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.

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