The paper defines the right to de-list as acceptable only in the context of an articulate data protection legislative corpus, and warns against the risks of establishing such a right in the context of, in particular, defamation law.
Accessnow insists that in order to limit the interference with freedom of expression the content can be de-linked but must necessarily remain published on-line.
The suggested safeguards include recommendations such as :
- de-listing criteria should be established by courts
- private companies should not have a “de facto judicial role over the content"
- the implementation of de-listing should be limited to data controllers and exclude, for example, users of social media
- access to remedy must be preserved.
The paper analyses the adoption of a right to de-list in various regions of the world, focusing in particular on Latin America, Russia, Hong Kong, India and South Korea. For each of the countries specific evaluation and recommendations are provided.
