Florida Court Claims Google Lost Right To Pull Site From Search Results

Court Claims Google Lost Right to Pull Site from Search Results

Supposedly, the US' free speech rights don't cover removing a site for the 'wrong' reasons.

Jon Fingas | May 22, 2016

You'd think that Google's search results would be protected in the US by free speech rights. Google gets to say what what shows up on its own site, right? However, one Florida court thinks differently. It recently determined that Google wasn't protected by the Constitution's First Amendment when it pulled search engine optimization firm E-ventures' website from its index. Google supposedly crossed the line when it claimed E-ventures was violating its policies by posting "pure spam" -- this wasn't strictly true, the court argued, and was driven by "anti-competitive motives" rather than self-expression.

"European Commission - Press release. Antitrust: Commission sends Statement of Objections to Google on Android operating system and applications." Source: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-1492_en.htm

<more at http://www.engadget.com/2016/05/22/court-says-google-site-removal-not-protected-speech/; related articles and links: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160519/12142234490/court-says-google-doesnt-have-first-amendment-right-to-drop-site-search-results.shtml (Court Says Google Doesn't Have A First Amendment Right To Drop A Site From Its Search Results. May 20, 2016) and http://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-files-formal-charges-against-google-1429092584 (EU Files Formal Antitrust Charges Against Google. Regulators open separate probe related to Google’s Android operating system. April 15, 2015)>