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High Court hears the first ‘right to be forgotten’ case

THE first “right to be forgotten” case began at the High Court today.

A businessman is attempting to get Google to remove media reports of a past conviction from its search results.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was convicted of “conspiracy to account falsely” in the late 1990s.

He argues that the conviction has been legally spent and he has a right to be forgotten, which is disputed by Google.

The technology transnational said the information was “materially accurate” and that there are strong public interest reasons for maintaining access to the publications.

The right to be forgotten was established by a May 2014 European Court of Justice ruling that gave Europeans the right to ask search engines to de-list information about them.

Google alone has since received more than 2.4 million such requests.

Lawyers say this case is the first time such a claim has been tried in England.

The hearing, which is expected to last several days, continues.

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