In his non-binding opinion to the Court of Justice of the European Union, Advocate-General Maciej Szpunar said that in the legal case between Google and French data protection authority, the CNIL, the court should rule in favor of limiting the scope of the so-called "right to be forgotten." Szpunar called the company’s “geo-blocking” offer sufficient and warned against complete de-referencing from the search engine. He added that the right to be forgotten must be balanced with other rights, including “legitimate public interest in accessing the information sought.” Fortune reports Thomas Hughes, the executive director of anti-censorship organization Article 19, said he hoped the court would follow Szpunar’s opinion, adding, “The court must limit the scope of the ‘right to be forgotten’ in order to protect global freedom of expression and prevent Europe from setting a precedent for censorship that could be exploited by other countries.”
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