LUXEMBOURG Alphabet unit Google must remove data from online search results if users can prove it is inaccurate, Europe's top court said on Thursday.
Free speech advocates and supporters of privacy rights have clashed over people's right to be forgotten online in recent years, meaning that they should be able to remove their digital traces from the Internet.
The case before the Court of Justice of the European Union CJEU involved two executives from a group of investment companies who had asked Google to remove search results linking their names to certain articles criticising the group's investment model.
They wanted Google to remove thumbnail photos of them from search results. The company did not say whether the information in the articles was accurate or not.
The operator of a search engine must de-reference information in the referenced content where the person requesting de-referencing proves that such information is manifestly inaccurate, the Court of Justice of the European Union said.