Google has received millions of requests to remove data from its searches. Bloomberg
Google has received millions of requests to remove data from its searches. Bloomberg
Google has received millions of requests to remove data from its searches. Bloomberg
Google has received millions of requests to remove data from its searches. Bloomberg

Asylum seekers, trafficking victims and extremists ask Google to remove data online


Nicky Harley
  • English
  • Arabic

Asylum seekers and trafficking victims have joined arms dealers and violent extremists in asking Google to remove their data from the internet.

More than 6.6 million requests have been submitted to Google under its Right to be Forgotten programme by people wanting to be wiped from online search results.

The latest cases include asylum seekers, migrants and trafficking victims who have risen to prominent positions and wish to wipe their past.

They also include requests by an arms dealer, a Croatian man convicted of a military uprising against the regime of a former president in Bolivia, a former member of a French violent extremist organisation who was convicted of a racist attack and members of extremist groups in Germany.

Under the policy, Google considers each request and decides whether its presence on the internet breaches a person’s human rights, or if it were in the public interest for it to remain.

Half of the more than six million requests Google has received since the launch of the programme in 2014 have been rejected.

The technology company recently refused a request filed by an international arms dealer from Bulgaria, who now holds a diplomatic position, to remove articles about weapons being illegally diverted after it was discovered that the business person was subject to several investigations by international organisations.

A man from Cyprus asked Google to remove articles about his previous immigration issues and past conviction for evading deportation while a former government official in Czechia asked for the delisting of a news article about his experience on migrating from Iraq to the Czech Republic.

A person in Estonia who was a victim of human trafficking sought the right to be forgotten in search inquiries.

A man in France convicted of being a member of a violent extremist organisation asked for stories about it to be removed. In another case, a victim of a terrorist attack in France asked for their name to be removed from stories about it.

A man in Germany asked for a tweet to be delisted that showed him being part of an anti-Semitic row during demonstrations in Berlin and another person from Germany asked for the delisting of articles relating to their membership of the far-right Identitarian Movement group.

Google refused a request from a Swedish politician, who was a leader of a political party, who asked for news stories covering accusations of sexual harassment and misuse of power against women in his party to be removed.

“We did not delist the URLs, given the prominent public position of the requestor and long duration of the professional wrongdoing,” Google said.

Previously, terrorists living in Europe applied to have their details removed.

“We assess each request on a case-by-case basis,” Google said.

“A few common material factors involved in decisions not to delist pages include the existence of alternative solutions, technical reasons, or duplicate URLs. We may also determine that the page contains information which is strongly in the public interest.

“Determining whether content is in the public interest is complex and may mean considering many diverse factors, including — but not limited to — whether the content relates to the requester’s professional life, a past crime, political office, position in public life or whether the content is self-authored content, consists of government documents or is journalistic in nature.”

The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE. 

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative 

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Dhadak

Director: Shashank Khaitan

Starring: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khattar, Ashutosh Rana

Stars: 3

'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'

Rating: 1 out of 4

Running time: 81 minutes

Director: David Blue Garcia

Starring: Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, Mark Burnham

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

Who's who in Yemen conflict

Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government

Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council

Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south

Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory

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Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR, Centre Stage; full HD @ 25/30/60fps

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Price: Wi-Fi – Dh2,499 (64GB) / Dh3,099 (256GB); cellular – Dh3,099 (64GB) / Dh3,699 (256GB)

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Updated: December 20, 2022, 3:54 PM