Wikipedia link to be removed from Google under “right to be forgotten” ruling
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has revealed that Google will soon remove a link to an entry in Wikipedia to comply with the EU’s “right to be forgotten” ruling.
It’s the first time an entry to the online encyclopedia will be removed from Google search and follows the removal of thousands links to sites, including the BBC.
Wales told the Observer the request was "Completely insane and it needs to be fixed."
He is one of a ten person team appointed by Google to an advisory council looking at how the search giant should comply with the ruling made by the European courts earlier this year.
The ruling means anyone can request content that is no longer relevant, out of date or excessive can be removed from search results in Europe. Google and other search engines such as Microsoft's Bing are responsible for handling the requests and making a judgement on whether the link should be removed.
In addition to Wales, the council also includes experts in the areas of data and privacy such as Oxford University professor of philosophy and ethics of information Luciano Floridi, the editorial director of french newspaper Le Monde Sylvie Kauffmann as well as Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt and chief legal officer David Drummond.
The California-based internet company is also seeking feedback from the public on the ruling and how it can best comply
Google earlier this week revealed it had received more than 91,000 removal requests, concerning 328,000 links as of 18 July, with the majority coming from France, Germany and the UK.
It said around 53 per cent of links were removed according to requests, 32 per cent were not removed and 15 per cent required more information.