Russia's ‘right to be forgotten’ takes effect today

Beginning today, the “right to be forgotten” takes effect in Russia, allowing Internet users to demand that search engines remove hyperlinks to “unverified or irrelevant” personal information. Individuals can request the takedown of links to content about anything that happened more than three years ago. The only exceptions apply to data about criminal offenses for which the statute of limitations hasn't yet expired, and information about criminal convictions that haven't been reversed or prison sentences that haven't been fully served.

Under the new regulations, Internet search engines have 10 days to execute or reject an individual's request to remove a particular hyperlink. The burden of determining the legality of these requests falls on the search engines, and getting the call wrong can result in stiff penalties.

Search engines will be fined between 80,000 and 100,000 rubles ($1,090 and $1,365), if they ignore a takedown request that a court later designates to be legal. If the search engine ignores a court order to remove hyperlinks under the right to be forgotten, the fines grow tenfold, ranging from 800,000 to 100,000 rubles ($10,900 to $13,650).