“Right To Be Forgotten”: Privacy Watchdogs Turning Censors of the Net

Paris, 2 December 2014 — Here is La Quadrature du Net’s reaction to the publication of the European Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) guidelines on the so-called “Right To Be Forgotten”.

“The guidelines published by European privacy watchdogs underline the serious issues raised by the EU Court of Justice decision of the right to de-indexation. The Right To Be Dereferenced puts in jeopardy freedom of expression and access to information. By entrusting search engines and administrative authorities with the responsibility to arbitrate between the right to privacy and freedom of speech, the Court’s decision worsens the dangerous drift towards an extra-judiciary regulation of the Internet. Now, these guidelines sanctify this decline of the Rule of Law rather than inviting the legislator to clarify the law in order to strike an appropriate balance between privacy and freedom of expression. If nothing is done, the CNIL (French DPA) will condone private censorship of the Internet, increasing confusion of roles created by the recent law on terrorism¹See the Law “strengthening provisions relative to the fight against terrorism”, which already gives it authority over the administrative blocking of websites.” said Philippe Aigrain, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net.