Japan court orders Google to remove litigant’s negative search results

A Japanese court has ordered Google to remove search results of a man's unflattering past in a new "right to be forgotten" order following a landmark ruling in Europe, AP reported.

The Tokyo District Court ordered Google Japan on Thursday to remove results that obliquely referred at the man's relations with a criminal organisation, after he complained of violation of his privacy rights.

Google spokesman Taj Meadows said the company had a standard process for removal requests, and people could approach Google.

In May, Europe's highest court ruled Google should delete references to negative past information, including old debts and past arrests, to protect what had come to be called "the right to be forgotten."

Public opinion remains divided on ''the right to be forgotten'' with some calling it a win for privacy rights, while others see it as precursor to censorship.

The court order came on a petition from the man, who claimed that the results of searches for his name violated his personal rights, Japanese wire sevice Jiji press reported.

Google contended in the litigation, that the man call the web site administrators to remove the content.

However, according to Nobuyuki Seki, presiding judge at the court, deleting search results that clearly violated personal rights would not be a disadvantage for the US search giant.

According to the court about 120 of 230 such search results should be deleted.

The same court had in a similar lawsuit, upheld a complaint filed by a Japanese man, and ordered the company in April 2013 not to show autocomplete suggestions for web searches for him. The Tokyo High Court reversed the decision in January this year.