Hiding on the Internet

[Commentary] A European court discovered a “right to be forgotten” on the Internet, allowing Europeans to demand that search engines remove links in search results to news stories and other accurate information that these people don’t want discovered. This development would merely be an amusing reminder to Americans about the absence of a First Amendment in Europe—if it weren’t for a recent demand by French regulators that search engines now censor their results in the US, not just in Europe.

Unless the Obama Administration can rouse itself to intervene to protect an open Internet, Google could soon have to start deleting search results in the U.S., making the Internet inaccurate for Americans, too. The European discovery of a right to hide is a reminder that the values at the core of the Internet reflect its roots in the U.S. The open Internet was built on American exceptionalism favoring free speech and permissionless innovation, not censorship and search algorithms vetted by lawyers. If Europeans prefer censored search results, they are entitled to their censored Internet. But the Obama administration should step up and fight against European demands that Google also censor the accurate search results that should always be available to Americans.