Narrowing the Right to Be Forgotten: Why the European Union Needs to Amend the Proposed Data Protection Regulation

content deemed artistic, journalistic, or literary, it leaves the determination of what constitutes an exception to the entity in charge of its removal (i.e.Google or Facebook).Furthermore, it penalizes companies for noncompliance.This has the potential to forcefully transform the role of these Internet companies from hosts to censors.6 Courts around the world are beginning to tackle the issue of who controls personal content once it is posted to the Internet and the degree to which individuals can control their online reputations.7 For example, two women in Argentina recently won lawsuits both claiming the Right to be Forgotten.8 Virginia Da Cunha, an Argentinian pop star, sued Google and Yahoo! to take down explicit photographs posted to the Internet.9 These were photographs that she consented to but did not wish to be widely published on the Internet.10 After Da Cunha won on appeal, the content was removed from the Internet; a query on Yahoo!'s search engine in Argentina for the material will produce no search results.11 Similarly, an Argentinian model for Sports Illustrated, Yesica Toscanini, demanded Yahoo! take down photographs of her drinking at a party that had been posted to the Internet.12 The court "ordered Yahoo! to block 'Yesica' searches while the two sides appeal [ed]." 13 Through the deletion of their presence on the Internet, these two cases ex-6.Id. arts.17(3)(a), 80. 7.There have been at least 130 similar cases since 2006 for issues related to individual's requesting the removal of personal content from the Internet.Vinod Sreeharsha, Google and Yahoo Win Appeal in Argentine Case, N.Y.TIMES (Aug.