| What the Right2Remove IS: 1) The Right2Remove advocates for legislation that allows for the removal of content from Internet platforms that is designed to cause harm to consumers in the United States. The Right to Remove privacy policy focuses on specific categories of sensitive personal information that should be removed to preserve individuals’ dignity and security, such as: information about victims of abuse, threats, exploitation, slander, stigmatization, identity theft, and leaks of personal data. See the full list of specific categories of sensitive information included in the Right to Remove privacy policy below. 2) The Right2Remove advocates for widespread application of consumer reporting laws, specifically the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), to data aggregators, search engines, social media, and Internet platforms engaged in misinformation. 3) The Right2Remove advocates for the amendment of CDA 230, so victims of web-based consumer protection violations can hold search engines and platforms responsible for the dissemination of illicit, harmful, and misleading content. 4) The Right2Remove advocates for the establishment of an independent review panel for adjudicating consumer protection violations on the Internet. Neither the FTC nor Google (or any other search engine) are impartial parties, being guided respectively by lobbies and private interest. 5) The Right2Remove advocates for the regulation of the advertising-based monetary model utilized by search engines and social media platforms, which manipulate the significance of online information and its contexts. 6) The Right2Remove advocates for a data privacy law that adapts Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation for use in the United States. Such a law should include: clear opt-in and opt-out options for data collection; access to all personal data collected; ability to correct inaccurate information, and to erase outdated or unlawful material; the right to object to processing of data for marketing purposes and to restrict the processing of personal data; capacity for data portability; and the capability to request data be processed by natural persons instead of computers. 7) The Right2Remove advocates for the establishment of an independent review panel that monitors data aggregators, search engines, and web platforms’ data handling practices and audits them on a continual and ongoing basis. 8) The Right2Remove advocates for the establishment of an independent review panel tasked with oversight and creation of a transparent framework for disclosing tech companies’ trade secrets, algorithms, aggregation methods, and, rating and editing practices. 9) The Right2Remove advocates for legislation that protects all criminal justice information on the Internet—criminal records, mugshots, and court dockets — from data aggregators. The Right2Remove advocates for removal of information from all public archives about arrests in which the defendant was determined not-guilty or the case was dismissed. |
What the Right2Remove is NOT: |
The Right2Remove is run by activists for Internet privacy and civil rights.
Director: Paolo Cirio |
Partners: Association for Accountability and Internet Democracy. |
Archive Press Releases:
4th PR, February 2020 [html] [pdf]; 3rd PR, February 2019 [html] [pdf];
2nd PR, October 2018 [html] [pdf]; 1st PR, June 2018 [pdf].
- The Right2Remove recap text Critique on Systems of Justice over the Internet about the Right to Be Forgotten and Free Speach, 2018.
- The Right2Remove guide for Reputation Management, 2018.
Archive Press Coverage:
- Interview on Al Jazeera TV Stream - U.S., 2019
- Interview on Team Human Podcast, U.S., 2018
- Interview on the Guardian, U.S., 2018
- Interview WHDT TV, U.S., 2016
Press Material:
- Press kit with high-res images
- YouTube videos playlist
- Twitter news feed
The Right to Remove is supported by Internet rights activists and organizations, privacy lawyers and law firms, consumers rights organizations and legislators.
"The activist Paolo Cirio, who launched a campaign group called Right2Remove, wants Google to either de-index the mugshot websites or massively down-rank them in search results – offering Americans a similar right to those in Europe, where there is a regulation granting the Right to be Forgotten”. – The Guardian article, June 12, 2018.
"As form of Right to be Forgotten, the Right to Remove is a Human Right. It is the necessary corollary to free speech. It is the application of the right to rehabilitation and reintegration deeply entrenched in laws and ethics worldwide in recognition of the “Human Condition”. If we cannot allow ourselves to make “mistakes” (a highly subjective test) our personal development, expression of controversial views, artistic creativity and “the right to be different” will cease to exist. I wonder what our civilization would have been like had the extent of unforgiving reputational harm we face today been around at the dawn of mankind." – Dan Shefet, Lawyer at the Paris Court of Appeal (France). In 2014 he founded the Association for Accountability and Internet Democracy (AAID)
"The Right2Remove’s mission is to apply consumer reporting laws that allow for the removal of harmful, embarrassing and exploitative content to the internet, and it is beyond a noble cause—it is a timely, invaluable one. Mugshot operators are bottom feeders in a cesspool; they hide in the mud pits they belong in. They kidnap people’s reputations and besmirch them for the rest of their lives. The Right2Remove network provided us with the resources necessary to take down one such operator who was destroying lives in St. Louis. Although a lot has been said about the right-to-be-forgotten conflicting with the First Amendment, there hasn’t been much discussion about search engines, like Google, aggregating and disseminating sensitive information about people on the internet. The time has come for us to provide a check on the powers of these tech monopolies. We must let them know that “We the People” will not accept the premise that extortionists, defamers and data aggregators deserve the same free-speech protections allotted to the lawful members of our citizenry. The Right2Remove isn’t just another criminal justice or privacy group; they are visionaries and ploughmen sowing a more humane and just mentality for our brave new world." – J. Justin Meehan, Attorney at Law
Contacts, Support, and Press for the Right to Remove
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