Biography no longer current: the Supreme Court imposes de-indexing from search engines
A recent ruling by the Court of Cassation in December 2023 (no. 36021/2023) recognised how the de-indexing of content on the web represents, more often than not, finding the delicate balance between the right to privacy and the right to information.
The case originates from an appeal to the Court of Rome filed by a senior executive, in various multinational companies, against an online newspaper in order to obtain the right to be forgotten with the consequent de-indexing of some articles published by the newspaper that concerned him, as well as compensation for damages suffered. In particular, the request for de-indexing concerned several articles published by the newspaper, deemed defamatory towards him, as part of a broader denigrating campaign conducted by the newspaper against the plaintiff which, in this specific case, did not consider the information to be 'news' and, therefore, argued that the publication was not in the public’s interest, no longer being current considering the passage of time.
At first instance, the Court rejected the appellant's claims, finding that the request for de-indexing was unjustified and that the time factor was irrelevant, since the current public interest in the knowledge of the information persisted, in respect of which the need for updating or falsity had not even been alleged. The case then reached the Court of Cassation, which, in the above mentiones judgment, first of all affirmed that a balance must be struck between the right to privacy, or right to be let alone, and the constitutional right to inform and be informed in relation to facts and news of public interest. Not only that, but also the right to be forgotten, i.e. the right not to suffer the prejudicial effects of republication, after the passing of time, no longer justified by new topical reasons; this need for privacy must be balanced with the community's right to information. It follows that, if an article of general interest is published on the web but damaging to the rights of a person who is not a well-known public figure, the de-indexing of the article from the search engine may be ordered. This would prevent facilitating the prolonged access to his personal data, through the mere use of keywords, which may harm his right not to be repeatedly connected to a telematic biography different from the current version and constituting the subject of news now outdated.
In this way, the press article relating to events dating back in time that are the subject of judicial reporting can remain in the newspaper's computer archive, provided, however, that the article is de-indexed from the generalist sites, thus upholding the person's right not to be found easily on the web (right not to be found easily).
This is a solution that, faced with the prospective desire of the person concerned to be forgotten for his involvement in a past affair, strikes a balance by excluding the extreme solutions of, on the one hand, preserving the status quo in its entirety and, on the other, completely deleting the news from the web, even removing it from the site where it is located.
