Online archives are a flash point in the on-going battle over the right to be forgotten. Image: DRs Kulturarvsprojekt (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Ever since the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) handed down its decision in the landmark 2014 case of Google Spain v AEPD and Mario Costeja González, a war of rights has quietly waged in courtrooms across Europe. Out of the spotlight, and largely downplayed by journalists after the initial coverage of the aforementioned CJEU case, the battle between the right to know and the right to forget has forged ahead. This clash of rights has largely played out over decisions regarding the so-called “Right to be Forgotten” (RTBF) – the highly nuanced legal principle that, within the European context, enables an individual to request personally identifiable information be scrubbed from content to render it less accessible, and/or have the content removed from search engine indexes.
