Chapter 6: Equal Treatment and Law Relating to Right to be Forgotten (RTBF): An Examination of Some Judicial Decisions with Special Reference to the European Union and India

In the modern era of speedier Information and Communication Technology, the power of social media as an information dissemination tool and influencer is felt in the hands of each and every individual both inside as well as outside the organization. Earlier, organizations and the administration did not have easy and free access to positive or negative information about an employee or a would-be employee, but nowadays with the advent of all-pervasive social media, hardly any aspect can remain hidden about any individual, whether one likes it or not. This is where a new problem has arisen quite often to the detriment of an employee or a would-be employee of an organization. Many a time, information that has become infructuous, irrelevant, or not supposed to impact the future of an individual anymore, still keeps doing the rounds of social media creating a false narrative about the individual leading to unjustified harm to the individual within or outside an organization. In such situations, one may find oneself helpless. The speed and unlimited reach of social media have further stoked the fire of this new malady, with the potential to cause harm to anybody, where of late, the law had to intervene and come to the rescue of the affected party in the name of justice.

This article makes a humble attempt to analyze the law relating to the “Right To Be Forgotten” (RTBF), briefly covering the traditional forms of unequal treatment, emergence of a new and different form of unequal treatment that popped up its head not long ago in the 21st century largely due to the wide-spread and increasing use of modern information and communication technologies (ICTs), powerful influencer social media and the internet by citizens and organizations in every nation and across the continents, ultimately leading to the birth of the “Right To Erasure” (RTE), more often now called as the “Right To Be Forgotten,” and further examine in this regard select European Union and Indian judicial decisions.

Since the area under examination is comparatively of recent origin in terms of national and international case law and is fast evolving its contours, it is by no means intended to be a comparative study between the European Union and India. The main focus here, however, is to study the emergence of a new and different form of unequal treatment of individuals in the 21st century, due the all-pervasive social media and the internet, consequent advent of “Right To Be Forgotten” (RTBF) or “Right To Erasure” (RTE), main relevant statutes, examine the broad spectrum of coverage of the “Right To Be Forgotten” (RTBF) in the European case law and the Indian case law, and touching upon select judicial decisions in the European Union and the Indian judicial systems, through the study of primary and secondary online and offline sources.