INTERNET search engine Google has denied it is being deliberately over-zealous in implementing a European Court of Justice ruling granting ordinary people the "right to be forgotten" online.
A court ruling in May required search engines in Europe to remove links to information relating to ordinary individuals who complain it is outdated or irrelevant.
Journalists have since reported articles and blog posts being removed after the subjects complained, prompting accusations of press censorship.
BBC economics editor Robert Peston highlighted a letter he had received about a 2007 blog post he wrote about investment bank Merrill Lynch and its former boss Stan O'Neal, which would no longer be shown "in response to certain searches on European versions of Google".
Google's head of communications for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Peter Barron, revealed the page was hidden after a request from a member of the public who posted a blog response and no longer wanted it to be available to people searching his name.
Mr Barron acknowledged Mr Peston's article was "very much in the public interest".
Mr Peston said it was "a bit weird" his article could be blocked because an individual regretted a comment he had voluntarily posted years ago.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article