French court orders Google to remove links to Max Mosley orgy images

A French court has asked Google to remove from its internet search results all images of a former Formula One car racing chief at an orgy.

The ruling in the privacy case could extensively impact the tech giant's operations across Europe.

The suit had been brought by Max Mosley, the former president of the International Automobile Federation, in September. The suit called for automatic filtering from its search engine, links to images from a British newspaper report in 2008 that included photos and a video of Mosley participating in a sadomasochistic sex party.

The former Formula One head had successfully sued the News of the World in a London court for breach of privacy and won £60,000, or about $96,000, in damages.

On Wednesday, the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris supported the Mosley's attempts to force Google to block references to the images from appearing in Google's search results worldwide.

Google said it would appeal the decision.

Mosley argued that French law made it illegal to take and distribute images of an individual in a private space without the permission of the person.

According to Google, however, that would limit freedom of speech, and force the company to block search results without any person or court overseeing the context in which the images appeared.

According to commentators, the decision comes as a setback for Google as it tries to defend a global stance that the search engine was a mere platform that delivered links to content and it should not be responsible for policing them.

Although Google could delete images on its website, it would not be possible for it to prevent others re-posting them, which would lead to a constant game of catch-up.

According to Google's statement, the court's request would require it to build a new software filter to continuously catch new versions of the posted images and remove them.

"This is a troubling ruling with serious consequences for free expression and we will appeal it," said Google's associate general counsel Daphne Keller in a statement.

"Even though we already provide a fast and effective way of removing unlawful material from our search index, the French court has instructed us to build what we believe amounts to a censorship machine."

According to Mosley, Google had not done enough to remove images that could still be seen on the search engine.