Limiting Damage of EU Privacy Ruling

Google has began implementing a decision (summary) by the European Court of Justice requiring search engines to honor requests to remove links to online information about individuals that is "no longer necessary in the light of the purposes for which they were collected or processed," under the European concept of "the right to be forgotten." And it has done so in a way that limits the damage to the internet as a source of information.

Remember, the First Amendment Only Applies to Government Restrictions

Cross posted on Counts Law Group blog
Since this blog focuses on American law, I have not written much about the restrictions placed on the internet in other countries, such as China. (Although I did write a guest blog post for the National Coalition Against Censorship on Google's reaction to Chinese internet restrictions.) But others have documented how China places limits on what internet users in the country can access (including here and here).

Google Draws a Line: Will Others Follow?

In January, when Google first threatened to stop abiding by Chinese laws censoring certain "sensitive" subjects on its Chinese search portal google.cn, commentators made two points: that Google should have expected that China would, true to its nature, always demand more control over the Internet, and that Google's stance in China did not match its positions in other countries.

Now Google has announced that it has discontinued its google.cn. 

Google and the Snake

(cross posted at the National Coalition Against Censorship)  
It is, literally, an old story. In the legend of the boy and the snake, a venomous snake asks a boy for help, and promises not to bite him. When the snake bites the boy despite his help, and the boy asks why, the snake says, “because I am a snake.”

The boy in the story learns an important lesson: despite the snake’s promises, in the end the snake behaves as his nature dictates.

Google has recently learned the same lesson.