Google received 12,000 requests from people seeking to be “forgotten” by the world’s leading search engine on the first day it offered the service. The requests, submitted on Friday, came after Google set up an online form to allow Europeans to request the removal of results about them from Internet searches. Earlier in May the European Court of Justice ruled that individuals have the right to have links to information about them deleted from searches in certain circumstances, such as if the data is outdated or inaccurate.
It’s been less than 48 hours since Google launched its online tool that allows people in the European Union to request to be “forgotten” from search results, and the company has already received 12,000 requests, according to a new report. The requests are in response to a European Court of Justice ruling earlier this month that found EU citizens have a “right to be forgotten” online and that Google must remove links to search results that can damage a person’s reputation. Reuters reports the company received 12,000 requests in the first 24 hours the form was online, with requests at times coming in as fast as 20 per minute. The form allows EU citizens to ask Google to remove links to search results where their names appear if the results are “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed.” It is limited to citizens of the EU and those making link removal requests must provide documentation verifying their identity.
