Internet giant Google has won a long and drawn out judicial battle in Japan, which was very similar to Europe’s “right to be forgotten” ruling.
Today, the Japanese Supreme Court has finally dismissed four cases against the U.S. based company, which asked for the removal of so-called defamatory comments in its Google Maps service, including the high profile case of removing two anonymous reviews for an undisclosed medical clinic. Previously, in April 2015, the Chiba District Court ruled that Google must delete the comments, for which Google appealed in the higher court, and finally emerged victorious.
The cases have been dismissed because the comments made through Google Maps appeared to be legitimate to the court. The two comments about the medical clinic via Google Maps revealed negative customer experiences. Meanwhile, the clinic had earlier managed to get those comments removed from web through a defamation suit against Google.
Although the case bears some resemblance with Europe’s “right to be forgotten” ruling, they are actually very different. In Europe, the issue pivoted around the freedom of individuals, but in Japan, the suit against the search engine involves both businesses and individuals.
In a statement, the company informed TechCrunch:
We’re pleased that with these latest rulings, the Supreme Court has unanimously recognized, based on existing privacy and defamation laws, that any decision to delete information from search results should prioritize the public’s right to information.
Google has previously struggled with the removals, stating that it has never violated its terms and has always been serving the public. It appears that the Japanese courts have concurred with it.
Back in 2015, the company had said;
While we provide tools that allow business owners to respond to reviews, and we take down posts that violate our policies, we believe online reviews, positive and negative, are a critical tool for people to give and read direct feedback about businesses.
