Canada’s supreme court has ruled that the country’s courts can order Google to remove search results all over the world after a long-running case between Vancouver-based tech company Equustek and distributor Datalink Technologies. In 2012, Equustek asked Google to remove Datalink search results after the distributor was accused of relabelling one of its products and selling it as its own online. Google proceeded to remove web pages associated with Datalink on the Canadian version of its search engine but the supreme court of British Columbia subsequently ordered the company to expand the de-indexing order worldwide.
The national supreme court has now dismissed Google’s appeal against that order on the grounds that “the internet has no borders – its natural habitat is global.” The judgment goes on to state that: “the only way to ensure that the interlocutory injunction attained its objective was to have it apply where Google operates – globally.” The court argued that if the de-indexed search results were restricted to Canada alone, buyers still find and buy Datalink products.
Free-speech advocates such as Canada’s OpenMedia had claimed that a worldwide order could be used to justify government censorship of the internet but the supreme court judges rejected that risk, arguing that “this is not an order to remove speech that, on its face, engages freedom of expression values; it is an order to de-index websites that are in violation of several court orders."
A Reuters report adds that Google cannot lodge an appeal against the supreme court ruling but it can apply to the British Columbia court to alter the order if it has evidence that complying with the order would force it to violate other countries’ laws, including interfering with freedom of expression.
