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More than 80 stories across national press and BBC have ‘right to be forgotten’

By William Turvill

More than 80 stories across the national press and BBC websites have been subject to ‘right to be forgotten’ removals.

In addition to the 12 removals which the BBC reported on its website last month, the Mail Online and Telegraph have reported the removal of links on 13 stories each.

Press Gazette has also learned that "around 20" Guardian stories, 11 Independent stories, seven Evening Standard stories and five Sun stories have been affected by ‘right to be forgotten’ requests.

Trinity Mirror and Express Newspapers have so far not responded to Press Gazette’s request for the number of stories affected on Mirror.co.uk, Express.co.uk and DailyStar.co.uk. The Times’s website, meanwhile, has not had links to any stories removed.

In addition, numerous examples of ‘right to be forgotten’ removals have been reported in the regional press.

The original 'right to be forgotten' ruling was passed in the EU Court of Justice in mid-May, allowing individuals to force the removal of links to website articles.

At the end of the month, Google introduced an online form where requests could be made.

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In July, Google admitted that it had made 'right to be forgotten' removal mistakes, and that some stories had been reinstated. It also revealed that it was receiving 1,000 take-down requests a day.

If successful, a ‘right to be forgotten’ request will lead to the link to a web page being removed under certain search terms.

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