Businessman takes Google to court over 'right to be forgotten' ruling

Google argues removing pages from search results would be 'rewriting history'

A businessman from London has taken Google to court because he believes that people should be able to ask the firm to remove references to previous convictions from search results.

According to Bloomberg, this is the first time that the American tech giant has entered a British courtroom over "right to be forgotten" requests.

The man, who remains unnamed due to legal reasons, is seeking legal action against the company because he wants it to erase content about a fake accountancy conviction from the 1990s.

At the time, the man was found guilty of fraud, but he wants Google to respect a British rehabilitation law that essentially says he can sweep the conviction under the carpet.

Hugh Tomlinson, the lawyer representing the businessman, argued damaging information about his client can be found easily. He said: "Google facilitates information that would otherwise be hard to find."

Tomlinson said it would be "sensible" for Google remove search results about the businessman's conviction. He claimed that there is no value in the content to the public.

"As things disappear into the past and people don't know about them, they become part of a private life," said the lawyer.

The tech firm slammed his argument, saying that the content should remain in the public domain because his client is running a public business.

Google has been flooded with requests from people to take down content after the European Union ruled in favour of "right to be forgotten" in 2014.

However, it has sidestepped this ruling by refusing to remove some links. As a result, it has faced pressure from courts and regulators across Europe.

At the time, Google argued that much of the content that people want removed from the internet is often in the public's interest.

Google said "the information in question is materially accurate and there are strong public interest reasons for maintaining access to the publications".

As cited by Bloomberg, Google lawyer Antony White said people should not use right to be forgotten as a way "to rewrite history or a right to tailor your past, but this is what the claimant would like to use it for".

The tech company recently released more information about the right to be forgotten scheme, saying it will only take down content if it is "inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant or excessive".