The EU Doesn't Like Its Google Search Results - Bloomberg View: And the EU will move ahead -- messily, spasmodically and perhaps insensibly -- with its grand experiment in protecting privacy.
There's no shortage of legitimate worries about this approach. It threatens free speech. Airbrushing history, even with the best of intentions, is almost always a very bad idea. It will place an arbitrary and costly imposition on search-engine companies. And such a sweeping new right is sure to have unintended consequences -- for starters, by potentially depriving the public of useful information.
Moreover, the administrative complexities -- where exactly does the ruling apply? To whom? How will disputes be arbitrated? -- are deeply confounding. The costs to companies and governments of making such a policy work are incalculable. The consequences of censoring search results could quickly become perverse. And so on.