The recent judgement by the European Court of Justice in the case Google Spain v. AEPD and Mario Costeja allows individuals to ¡°de-index¡± content about themselves, including links to newspaper reports, if it is ¡°inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant or excessive in the light of the time that had elapsed¡±.

The ruling has potential implications for academic research.

Speaking at a press briefing to launch the tenth Wikimania conference at London¡¯s Barbican Centre this week, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales argued that ¡°the right to create content, including controversial content, should be accepted¡±.

Geoff Brigham, general counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation, the US-based organisation behind Wikipedia, was worried that ¡°history is being filled with memory holes. Demands that we erase content are a direct threat to our mission.¡± Not only was ¡°the right to be forgotten¡­ a false promise¡±, but it meant that ¡°links may be silently deleted¡±.

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¡°This type of self-censorship is unacceptable,¡± added the foundation¡¯s chief executive, Lila Tretikov, ¡°the lack of disclosure inexcusable¡±. Deleting links amounted to ¡°removing an index to a book in a library¡± rather than just ¡°correcting the information in the book¡±, she said.

The press conference also saw the launch of the Wikimedia Foundation¡¯s first Transparency Report, which sets out how it responds to requests to provide user information, to take down or alter content, or to remove material said to be in copyright.

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Of the 304 ¡°requests for content alteration and takedown¡± during the two years to June 2014, not a single one had been granted. Examples cited included a request by a French intelligence agency to remove information about a military base that became publicly available after it had arranged a visit for local journalists, and a complaint from a photographer who claimed copyright in some images created by a macaque monkey which had stolen his camera and taken several ¡°selfies¡±.

matthew.reisz@tsleducation.com