First Wikipedia link to be removed under "Right To Be Forgotten"

Jimmy Wales’s first comment on the European court ruling, described the “Right To Be Forgotten” in no uncertain terms, “Insane” and “Needs to be fixed”.

Yesterday, August 2nd, The Observer reports on the first Wikipedia link removed from Google search results.

The removal does not include every search term pointing to the Wikipedia entry, but rather some specific keywords. Wikipedia presents some built-in challenges, to the carry on of the European ruling, as entries can be updated frequently enough, to generate new keywords that might be just as relevant as the ones previously restricted.

Jimmy Wales has already agreed to be included in the 10 person council, assigned by Google to weigh in on the removal requests. So far Google has already removed nearly 300,000 links, after receipt of 91,000 requests, with France as the leading nation, with 17,500 requests, followed by Germany (16,500), the UK (12,000), Spain (8,000), Italy (7,500) and finally the Netherlands, with as many as 5,500 requests.

Not every request has been successful, as the ruling must abide to guidelines that prevent unlawful or malicious use of the law, such as takedown requests as an accessory of business malpractice. The takedown council’s latest numbers show 32% of requests denied, 15% needing further information, and 53% processed.

Jimmy Wales, along with the council, is set to fly to Europe, on a tour of court hearings beginning in Madrid, on September 9.

Wales has been quoted saying:

"In the case of truthful, non-defamatory information obtained legally, I think there is no possibility of any defensible 'right' to censor what other people are saying. You do not have a right to use the law to prevent Wikipedia editors from writing truthful information, nor do you have a right to use the law to prevent Google from publishing truthful information. Wikipedia can and should work hard to do a good job, just as Google can and should work hard to do a good job."

Jimmy Wales has been one of the first to speak out against the legislation, as the ruling is beginning to affect Wikipedia, the massive 110 million pages online encyclopedia, which Wales co-founded in 2001.