Google is receiving a deluge of requests from people hoping to delete individual search results, as Europeans exercise their newly-won “right to be forgotten.”
Google said Tuesday it had received 41,000 requests from people in the first four days after posting a request page late last week, the Wall Street Journal reports, amounting to more than 10,000 requests per day, or roughly 7 each minute.
The Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice ruled last month that search engines must accept requests to remove links from individual name searches. Critics of the court’s ruling say it could limit free speech and allow for a whitewashing of the internet.
The sheer volume of requests has led Google to consider hire new staffers or re-dedicating staffers to deal with submissions.
[WSJ]
Sign up for Inside TIME. Be the first to see the new cover of TIME and get our most compelling stories delivered straight to your inbox.
