Tech & Rights

No Right to Oblivion for Terrorists in Italy

The country's Data Protection Authority denied a former terrorist's request to remove web content about his past, even though he has served his prison sentence and is now a free man.

by Associazione Antigone
Everyone has the right to be forgotten, but it isn’t always respected in Italy.

'History can’t be deleted' is the principle established by the protection commissioner, Antonello Soro, when he declared unfounded an appeal by a former terrorist who wanted references about him removed from the Internet.

The man, who finished serving his sentence in 2009, had turned first to Google to ask it to remove some URL and search suggestions, but he didn’t receive a positive response. He then presented an appeal to Italy's Data Protection Authority, arguing that he, as a free citizen, is harmed by the content found online.

Haunted by the past

In denying the man's request, the Data Protection Authority maintained that the information the man sought to have removed, referring to particularly serious crimes, is included under the right to be forgotten guidelines – adopted by the Working Group on Data Protection of Europe in 2014 – as information that is not to be deleted.

According to Italy's Data Protection Authority, the information is indeed about crucial events that mark some of the darkest pages of Italian history and are not to be deleted from collective memory.

The Data Protection Authority stated that it believed there was a public interest in being able to access the information in question, and declared applicant’s request for removal of the URL to be unfounded.

But how can a former detainee fully rehabilitate himself in society if every Google search about him reveals all the worst details of his past?

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