In what’s shaping to become a crucial test of Internet freedom, a French court has ordered the world’s best-known search engine, Google, to remove all links and evidence of images of a former British Formula 1 boss partying with prostitutes.
Google said the case “should worry all those who defend freedom of expression on the Internet,” and it plans an appeal, BBC reported.
Max Mosley, the former head of the motorsport, sued the News of the World — which has now closed — over a story in 2008 that reported he participated in an orgy that had Nazi overtones, BBC said. He won the suit, including damages in the amount of $90,000 after the court found the newspaper was guilty of a breach of privacy for secretly filming the party and plastering a story about it all over the front page, complete with a photo of Mr. Mosley with five prostitutes. Mr. Mosley won another breach of privacy suit on the same matter in France in 2011, BBC reported.
Now a civil court in France has gone a step further and ruled that Google has two months to take down the risque photographs and wipe out all links to the pictures, or face penalties and fines, Time reported.
Meanwhile, Mr. Mosley has another suit against Google in Germany demanding the company there remove the photos and links. That court is expected to render a ruling in January, Time reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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