Not sure if you saw this news where a top Canadian court ruled that the lower courts can force Google to remove content from their search engine globally, not just in Canada. The ruling says that a judge has "the power to issue an injunction forcing Google to scrub search results about pirated products not just in Canada, but everywhere else in the world too," says Fortune.
"This is not an order to remove speech that, on its face, engages freedom of expression values, it is an order to de-index websites that are in violation of several court orders. We have not, to date, accepted that freedom of expression requires the facilitation of the unlawful sale of goods," wrote Judge Rosalie Abella.
Matt Cutts, former Googler, is not a fan:
O, Canada. https://t.co/kRbfH54ljH
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 28, 2017
Here are some more tweets about this:
European Union: We demand Google remove articles about people in Europe under right to be forgotten.
— Eric Turkewitz (@Turkewitz) June 28, 2017
Canada: Hold my beers...
This is a big deal: one country trying to force global censorship on Google. Scary, though with DMCA, Google's done that for US for years... https://t.co/Oi3zMOYhoG
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) June 29, 2017
4/10 If Canadian court can issue global takedown, so can anyone. Will ultimately fall to Google to decide which orders it will follow.
— Michael Geist (@mgeist) June 28, 2017
Worldwide search-result-removal orders imposed by one country's court represent a SOPA-level threat to the open Internet. https://t.co/uKlN6Fq8Mj
— Rob Pegoraro (@robpegoraro) June 28, 2017
Honestly, these legal issues are above me and I am sure there are lots of details here that people can pull out and complain about. But it does seem very concerning to me to let a lower court judge require Google to remove content.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
