EU’s Top Court Orders Google To Remove “Manifestly Inaccurate” Data

The EU’s top court ruled that Alphabet subsidiary Google must remove information from online search results if users can demonstrate that it is false. The “right to be forgotten” online, or the ability to delete one’s digital footprint from the Internet, has caused conflict between proponents of free speech and those who defend privacy rights in recent years.

The two executives from a group of investment companies who brought the case before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) asked Google to remove search results linking their names to particular articles that criticized the investment strategy of the group.

EU requested Google to remove the thumbnail images

European Union also requested that Google take their thumbnail photos out of search results. The company refused the requests, claiming it had no idea whether the details in the articles were true or false.

The European Union Court of Justice said:

“The operator of a search engine must de-reference information found in the referenced content where the person requesting de-referencing proves that such information is manifestly inaccurate.”

However, the case number is C-460/20 Google (Déréférencement d’un contenu prétendument inexact).

Google will combine Waze’s mapping service and map product teams

In an effort to streamline processes, Google announced that teams working on the mapping service Waze and products like Google Maps will combine as of December 9. According to a Google spokesperson, the Alphabet Inc.-owned company will incorporate Waze, which it purchased in 2013 for $1 billion, into Google Geo, its portfolio of real-world mapping products, which also includes Google Maps, Google Earth, and Street View.

Google announced that Waze CEO Neha Parikh will leave the company after a transitional period. Waze will continue to be a standalone app with about 151 million monthly active users worldwide.

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet, stated on July 12 that the company would streamline procedures and combine investments where they overlap. Noam Bardin, the company’s former top executive, claimed in February 2021 that Waze struggled to expand within Google and that it could have “probably grown faster and much more efficiently” if we had remained independent.

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