The Superior Court of Paris has convicted Google of defamation, after a sentenced French rapist found ” rape” and ” rapist” as suggested terms when in search of himself. Well, duh, right? Except in France, you’re still presumed innocent while appealing your case.
The man, currently serving a three year prison term for ” corruption of a minor,” is appealing the costs, making Google’s algorithmic labeling an act of libel. The court has ordered Google to remove the offending auto-suggestions, and implement safeguards in order to keep similar pairings from occurring . Google is, naturally, fighting the fees, brushing their hands of the suggested words entirely-” Google would not suggest these terms. Each of the queries shown in Autocomplete were typed previously by other Google users,” commented a Google spokesperson.
Whether the fellow is a rapist is up to the French courts to make a decision. But the case does raise an attractive hypothetical, regardless of what country you’re in. Say you were accused of rape-or any other crime-and then found innocent after appealing. Surely there’d be some residual web history surrounding your case. Is it Google’s responsibility to keep your cleared name from being paired with crimes you didn’t commit? [ Telegraph ]
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