LUXEMBOURG (CN) — If someone asks for links to be removed from Google because they are false, the company must look into the claim, said an adviser to the European Court of Justice in a non-binding opinion issued Thursday.
Advocate General Giovanni Pitruzzella found that, when Google is asked to remove something from its search results, it is responsible for fact-checking the results. The underlying case arose in Germany and involves two financial service providers accused of malfeasance by a purported extortion blog.
“The search engine is required, by virtue of the role which it plays in the dissemination of information and the resulting responsibilities, to carry out checks to confirm or otherwise the merits of the request,” the Italian judge wrote.
The case dates to the 2015 publication of three articles on a website referred to in court documents as g-net. The posts criticized the investment models of two German financial service advisers, a couple according to filings.
Pictures of the pair — called T.U. and R.E. to protect their privacy — driving luxury cars, in a helicopter and in front of a charter plane were included with the blog posts. The website is operated by the company G-LLC, which claims to prevent fraud and provide transparency in financial markets but has been accused of publishing negative stories and asking money from the subjects of those stories to remove them.
T.U. and R.E. asked Google to remove both the articles and the accompanying photographs from its search results under the EU’s “right to be forgotten,” claiming the accusations were false and defamatory. The search engine giant refused, arguing the information could be relevant and that it was under no obligation to investigate whether the allegations are true. The German Federal Court of Justice asked the EU’s top court to weigh in.
A landmark ruling by the European Court of Justice in 2014 found that all EU residents had the right to be forgotten, ordering Google to remove from its search results decades-old listings of foreclosure auctions over unpaid social security debts. Google had refused to remove the links, arguing that it wasn’t the “controller” of such information.
This right was later codified in EU law in the 2018 General Data Protection Regulation. Since then, Google says it has received requests to remove more than 2.4 million URLs, mostly related to old criminal convictions or bad business practices.
The articles in question, as well as the accompanying photographs, were removed by the website in 2018.
If the court follows Thursday’s opinion, it would broaden the obligations search engine operators have beyond the current standard of outdated and irrelevant information to include information that is false. Google, the advocate general argued, can “swiftly analyse using the technological tools at its disposal.”
Opinions from advocate generals are non-binding on the court, but final rulings reflect their legal arguments in about 80% of cases. A final decision in this case is expected in the coming months.
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96 hours of work April 15, 2024