TY - JOUR
T1 - Reconsidering the ‘Right to be Forgotten’
T2 - Memory rights and the right to memory in the new media era
AU - Tirosh, Noam
N1 - Funding Information: This study has been supported by a Career Integration Grant awarded by the Marie Curie FP7 program of the European Union (Project #322207) and by the I-CORE Program of the Planning and Budgeting Committee and the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 1716/12). Publisher Copyright: © 2016, © The Author(s) 2016.
PY - 2017/7/1
Y1 - 2017/7/1
N2 - In 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) established the ‘Right to be Forgotten’ (RtbF). Since its establishment, more than 500,000 people filed requests with Google to be ‘de-listed’ from its search. At the same time, the Court’s decision has stirred debates focused on the tension the decision raised between a person’s right to privacy and freedom of expression. This study offers, yet, a different reading of the decision and its meaning. It first outlines the theoretical foundations of the concept of memory and its relation to rights. Then, it focuses on media, memory, and the RtbF. Afterward, the study discusses the legal origins of the RtbF and claims that the right is actually a right to construct one’s narrative. Therefore, in order to analyze the RtbF, this study places it within memory studies and analyzes it through its tools. From this perspective, this study criticizes the emphasis placed on forgetting in the definition of the right and problematizes its focus on individuals. Eventually, this study uses the legitimization the RtbF gives to a new discourse about memory in relation to rights in order to suggest an extended ‘right to memory’ that will answer the memory needs of our time.
AB - In 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) established the ‘Right to be Forgotten’ (RtbF). Since its establishment, more than 500,000 people filed requests with Google to be ‘de-listed’ from its search. At the same time, the Court’s decision has stirred debates focused on the tension the decision raised between a person’s right to privacy and freedom of expression. This study offers, yet, a different reading of the decision and its meaning. It first outlines the theoretical foundations of the concept of memory and its relation to rights. Then, it focuses on media, memory, and the RtbF. Afterward, the study discusses the legal origins of the RtbF and claims that the right is actually a right to construct one’s narrative. Therefore, in order to analyze the RtbF, this study places it within memory studies and analyzes it through its tools. From this perspective, this study criticizes the emphasis placed on forgetting in the definition of the right and problematizes its focus on individuals. Eventually, this study uses the legitimization the RtbF gives to a new discourse about memory in relation to rights in order to suggest an extended ‘right to memory’ that will answer the memory needs of our time.
KW - The Right to be Forgotten
KW - collective memory
KW - cultural memory
KW - forgetting
KW - freedom of expression
KW - privacy
KW - right to memory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85020673423&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443716674361
DO - https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443716674361
M3 - Article
SN - 0163-4437
VL - 39
SP - 644
EP - 660
JO - Media, Culture and Society
JF - Media, Culture and Society
IS - 5
ER -
