Google and European Union regulators are coming to grips with the massive number of "right to be forgotten" requests that the search company has received since a court ruling earlier this year.
Meeting in Brussels this week, Google, along with Microsoft and Yahoo, aim to work with a European Commission committee to develop a plan of action on how to deal with the thousands of requests for links to be removed from search engines.
The company has said it has received over 90,000 requests from individuals asking for specific links to be de-listed from searches. The ruling aims to allow average citizens to "be forgotten" online when it comes to dated and irrelevant information about them being posted. In total, over 300,000 Internet links have been requested to be removed.
A Google representative was cited in reports as saying that the company has rejected around 30 percent of the requests and in another 15 percent has requested more information from the person in order to determine whether or not to remove the link. Thus, over 50 percent of the requests apparently have been approved and have been, or are being, taken down.
The meeting this week followed the beginning of that de-linking process. Google in June first began removing some links through the requests that they received, but then they received backlash for removing some links, highlighting the difficulty and frustration over how to implement the court ruling.
There was debate after those articles that were supposed to "be forgotten" instead received widespread attention. Watchdogs criticized Google and charged it was tyring to drive public opinion against the move and raise censorship fears.
Since then, top European officials have urged Google to do more to ensure that the links being removed are pertinent and are not of public interest. This is mainly the reason the companies and the top regulators were meeting in Brussels in an effort to figure out how to proceed with de-linking.
