Google Europe Blog: May 2016

Our commitment to fighting illegal hate speech online

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Code of ConductCommunity Guidelines

European Justice Commissioner Vĕra Jourová (centre), signed the Code of Conduct, as did representatives from (l to r) Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft and GooglePosted by Lie Junius, Public Policy Director, Google Brussels

A principle that should not be forgotten

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Today, we published an op-ed by Kent Walker, Google’s global general counsel, in France’s Le Monde newspaper. We’re republishing the op-ed in English below. For hundreds of years, it has been an accepted rule of law that one country should not have the right to impose its rules on the citizens of other countries. As a result, information that is illegal in one country can be perfectly legal in others: Thailand outlaws insults to its king; Brazil outlaws negative campaigning in political elections; Turkey outlaws speech that denigrates Ataturk or the Turkish nation — but each of these things is legal elsewhere. As a company that operates globally, we work hard to respect these differences. In March, the French data protection regulator (the CNIL) ordered that its interpretation of French law protecting the right to be forgotten should apply not just in France, but in every country in the world. The right to be forgotten - more accurately, a right to be delisted from search results - was created in a landmark 2014 ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). It lets Europeans delist certain links from search engine results generated by searches for their name, even when those links point to truthful and lawfully published information like newspaper articles or official government websites. Google complies with the European Court’s ruling in every country in the EU. Our approach reflects the criteria set out by the CJEU, as well as guidance from each country’s regulators and courts about the nuances of their local data protection rules. Across Europe we’ve now reviewed nearly 1.5 million webpages, delisting around 40%. In France alone, we’ve reviewed over 300,000 webpages, delisting nearly 50%. Following feedback from European regulators, we recently expanded our approach, restricting access to delisted links on all Google Search services viewed from the country of the person making the request. (We also remove the link from results on other EU country domains.) That means that if we detect you’re in France, and you search for someone who had a link delisted under the right to be forgotten, you won’t see that link anywhere on Google Search - regardless of which domain you use. Anyone outside the EU will continue see the link appear on non-European domains in response to the same search query. The CNIL's latest order, however, requires us to go even further, applying the CNIL’s interpretation of French law to every version of Google Search globally. This would mean removing links to content - which may be perfectly legal locally - from Australia (google.com.au) to Zambia (google.co.zm) and everywhere in between, including google.com. As a matter of both law and principle, we disagree with this demand. We comply with the laws of the countries in which we operate. But if French law applies globally, how long will it be until other countries - perhaps less open and democratic - start demanding that their laws regulating information likewise have global reach? This order could lead to a global race to the bottom, harming access to information that is perfectly lawful to view in one’s own country. For example, this could prevent French citizens from seeing content that is perfectly legal in France. This is not just a hypothetical concern. We have received demands from governments to remove content globally on various grounds -- and we have resisted, even if that has sometimes led to the blocking of our services. In defence of this foundational principle of international law, we today filed our appeal of the CNIL’s order with France’s Supreme Administrative Court, the Conseil d’Etat. We look forward to the Court’s review of this case, which we hope will maintain the rights of citizens around the world to access legal information.
Posted by Kent Walker, Senior Vice President and General Counsel

Look beyond the surface - celebrating Freud’s 160th birthday

Friday, May 6, 2016

Do you wake up in the morning wondering what your dreams mean? The idea that dreams ‘mean’ anything, or that we have an unconscious mind at all, is now commonly accepted thanks to Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the father of psychoanalysis. To celebrate the 160th anniversary of his birth today, we have partnered with the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna and the Freud Museum London to bring the stories behind Freud’s life and legacy online. We commemorate Sigmund Freud with a Google Doodle on our homepages in 40 countries.

The Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna is located in the physician’s former apartment and office located in the city’s ninth district. He lived and worked there from 1891 until 1938, when his family fled Nazi persecution. The online exhibition Getting to know Sigmund Freud, presents several stages of his life through a selection of photographs, illustrations and documents. The Freud Museum London is located in the house where the Freud family lived after their escape from Austria. The museum’s online exhibition “Sigmund Freud: A Life in Psychoanalysis” brings Sigmund Freud to life and shows how he was one of the most influential thinkers and cultural personalities of the 20th century. The exhibit introduces psychoanalysis in an accessible way, show us how Freud’s ‘talking cure’ helped treat psychological issues, and even allows us to peek inside Freud’s home with the famous couch his patients opened up their thoughts.

Freud's psychoanalytic couch (2015) by photographer: Ardon Bar Hama, Freud Museum London

The Google Doodle that honors Freud’s work doesn’t focus on the more familiar symbol of the psychoanalyst’s couch. Instead, Kevin Laughlin, who created this Google Doodle, visualises Freud’s theory of the mind. The hidden portion of the icebergs suggest the vast, murky underside of the unconscious human mind. Like the steam ship, Freud’s psychoanalysis helps us to navigate these fascinating depths. Sigmund Freud steered a path through 20th-century thought, leaving all of us in the wake of his remarkable legacy. Posted by Lauren Nemroff, program manager, Google Cultural Institute

This Is For Everyone: Google and Debating Europe Discuss Women and Tech

Friday, May 6, 2016

Debating Europe

Girls in ICTreportHayla GhazalUN Change Ambassador

Lero’s Summer Computing Camp for GirlsCampusMame Khary Diene

Europe Blog

Our commitment to fighting illegal hate speech online

A principle that should not be forgotten

Look beyond the surface - celebrating Freud’s 160th birthday

This Is For Everyone: Google and Debating Europe Discuss Women and Tech

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