Ordering Google to Forget

[Commentary] In a ruling that could undermine press freedoms and free speech, the highest court of the European Union said that Google must comply with requests from individuals to remove links on search results pages to newspaper articles and other web pages that might cause embarrassment. The European Court of Justice ruled that an individual’s “right to be forgotten” was so strong that Google and other Internet search companies could be forced to remove links even if the information in question was itself accurate and lawful. The desire to allow individuals to erase data that they no longer wish to disclose is understandable. But lawmakers should not create a right so powerful that it could limit press freedoms or allow individuals to demand that lawful information in a news archive be hidden.