NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] EU's "Right to Have The Streisand Effect" Goes Live
EU's "Right to Have The Streisand Effect" Goes Live
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001077.html
Since I've at various times over the years expressed both my concerns
and disgust for the "right to be forgotten" concept, e.g. "The 'Right
to Be Forgotten': A Threat We Dare Not Forget"
(http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000938.html), I'm not going to
rehash that discussion here and now. But a look at the ironic
situation the EU censorship bureaucrats have created for themselves
today, via the recent EU court ruling on this matter, is both amusing
and instructive.
Google now has an "application" form up for EU residents who want to
apply for search results removal. Using this form definitely does not
guarantee that results will be removed, particularly if there is any
public interest in those results.
But here's the best part. Results will only be removed for the EU
country localized versions of Google. They will *not* (naturally,
since thankfully the EU doesn't rule the world!) be removed from the
main google.com site itself.
Additionally, when results are removed from EU versions, the
associated results pages will reportedly contain a notice to EU users
that results were deleted (similar to the way copyright takedowns are
handled now), and "Chilling Effects"-type reports will also reportedly
be made.
The implications of this gladden my "right to be forgotten" hating
heart. If you're an EU user searching for Joe Blow, and the EU has
forced removal of a search result related to him on, say, google.fr,
the warning notice informing you that results have been removed for
that search give you an immediate cue that you might want to head over
to google.com to see what the EU censorship bureaucrats deemed unfit
for your eyes. In essence, it's a built in Streisand Effect, courtesy
of the EU itself! Before this, you might not even have noticed the
result in question among other results for that search .
Not only that, but other search queries that happen to include the
pages that were blocked for EU searches on that name will still
apparently appear, even in the EU.
And of course, curious EU searchers who want to escape the local EU
censorship regimes have various ways to reach the main google.com, as
do other users in censoring countries around the world: google.com
homepage access links, use of google.com/ncr (No Country Redirect), or
in more extreme cases proxies and VPNs.
Censorship in the Internet age is a hopeless endeavor, as the EU is
about to discover.
Get your popcorn ready.
Be seeing you.
--Lauren--
(I'm a consultant to Google. I'm speaking for myself, not for them.)
- - -
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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