Blaming the Algorithm: Defamation Case Highlights Google's Double Standard

[sysop]

Former German first lady Bettina Wulff has taken on Google for linking her with search terms that link to false rumors that she used to be a prostitute. The company argues that it generates such terms based on "objective factors," but it's not that simple. Google has suppressed undesirable results before in response to powerful lobby groups.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...854914,00.html

[Inglenda2]

After all the trouble caused by the behavior of the former President Wulff and the way he has cashed in on taxpayers money, it is unlikely that normal German citizens would be at all surprised by, or interested in, what his wife has, or has not, done.
For most of them there are far more important problems to be dealt with. It is therefore quite probable, that this whole affair has ben made public, in order to promote the sales of her new book.

[BTraven]

It's no doubt that the words you are offered when you type in the name of Mrs. Wulff had been generated by plenty of users who used them when the rumours came up. It's understandable that the public was interested in that matter. The problem is that words like escort still appear though it's proved that she has never worked as one. Then, nobody is interested in that matter anymore. I could imagine a court will ask Google to publish the monthly clicks. I'm quite sure that only few will use them therefore Google can't argue there is a strong public interest. By the way it's a special kind of slander.