Why you should forget your ‘right to be forgotten’

The European Court of Justice issued a landmark ruling last May, and it stated that in certain circumstances Google (and other search engine companies) must remove links to people’s personal information if the details are “inaccurate, inadequate or no longer relevant.” The ruling sparked the concept of “the right to be forgotten.”

What a terrible mistake. Despite its arguably good intentions, the court’s action is a potentially devastating blow to the general public’s right to know. It also gives a handful of companies the power to decide which specific bits of history should be unwritten. George Orwell is often quoted out of context, but in this case a line from “1984” seems fitting: “He who controls the past, controls the future.”

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