Right To Be Forgotten: Balancing Between Privacy And Freedom Of Expression

Niloy Ghosh, School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru

ABSTRACT

The Internet never forgets one of the many advantages of the internet, which has become a nightmare for many. Any information uploaded on the internet by any party remains there till its access has explicitly been restricted, or it has been erased. The Right to be forgotten refers to the ability of individuals to erase, limit, delink, delete, or correct personal information on the Internet that is misleading, embarrassing, irrelevant, or anachronistic. The Right to be forgotten is a right that allows the persons affected to get the said data erased or deleted. It reflects a claim that an individual can get specific data deleted to ensure no other party can trace it. The right primarily entitles the individual to have information videos or photographs deleted from the internet to ensure that search engines cannot find them. The rationale behind the idea is that people shouldn’t be affected by any information about a past event that they did by mistake or had been cleared of it. This right is fundamental today, as once any content is shared on social media, it gets to a broad audience. The said right was established through a directive in the European Union and has been explicitly mentioned as a right under the GDPR 2018; However, that is not devoid of issues. In India, there has been no evidence of the said right; however, the state has drafted a bill that provides for the erasure and disclosure of relevant data, but the same is still in the making. The Judiciary itself has not cleared the air for the said right, and it remains a grey space. The European regime has inspired the Indian legislation enacted to apply the right. The Indian scenario will be a clash between the right to privacy and the right to freedom of speech. It has also been criticised as it can be used as a censorship tool. Through this research paper, we shall be looking at the development of the said right and how, in the Indian context, this right can be applied.

Keywords: Privacy, Personal Data, individual, legislation, India