> Imagine, for example, that you were falsely arrested for murder and then cleared of the crime.
Ok, but let's also imagine the opposite... let's say I am assaulted, but fail to get a conviction for the person who assaults me.
Am I allowed to tell people that I was assaulted by the person? Am I allowed to write down my story of being assaulted, and tell other people about my experience? Can I warn my friends about this person?
If I write up my personal experience of being assaulted and post it on my blog, can my assailant order me to take it down just because I was unable to get a conviction? Can someone else force me to take down my own story about my own life, just because it involves someone else?
I can't imagine telling a rape victim, "sorry, you don't get to tell people your story because you weren't able to get a conviction"
> Am I allowed to tell people that I was assaulted by the person? Am I allowed to write down my story of being assaulted, and tell other people about my experience? Can I warn my friends about this person?
Yes. "Right to be forgotten" applies to corporations, not individuals.
> If I write up my personal experience of being assaulted and post it on my blog, can my assailant order me to take it down just because I was unable to get a conviction?
No.
However, your assailant would likely to able to get it taken down if they sued you for defamation. If a court had failed to find evidence that they assaulted you, they'd probably win.
> I can't imagine telling a rape victim, "sorry, you don't get to tell people your story because you weren't able to get a conviction"
"Right to be forgotten" (and the somewhat related GDPR) don't do this. They just tell corporations that they can't store data on the assailant (or the victim) if either of those people requests the data be deleted.
This exact scenario is extremely common due to defamation laws, though.
> However, your assailant would likely to able to get it taken down if they sued you for defamation. If a court had failed to find evidence that they assaulted you, they'd probably win.
This isn’t usually true. The burden of proof is really high in a criminal case, so you can fail to get a conviction even when there is fairly good evidence of guilt. The burden is reversed in defamation cases, and the person claiming defamation would have to prove the person was lying, which would be impossible if the person actually committed the crime. There are a LOT of cases where there is not enough evidence to prove either side is telling the truth.
> "Right to be forgotten" (and the somewhat related GDPR) don't do this. They just tell corporations that they can't store data on the assailant (or the victim) if either of those people requests the data be deleted.
Ok, but if I write up a blog post about my experience being assaulted, does that mean I can’t have my blog indexed by Google? I don’t have the right to promote my story and get as many people to read it as possible?
> This isn’t usually true. The burden of proof is really high in a criminal case, so you can fail to get a conviction even when there is fairly good evidence of guilt.
Using just the example of rape, there is rarely "fairly good evidence" because it's an event that typically happens in private. If the victim is unwilling or afraid to immediately be examined by (potentially abusive) police, then there is no contemporaneous evidence of the event. It becomes "he-said, she-said" right away.
Other types of assault may happen with eye witnesses, but even then, if your eye witnesses can't get you convicted of a crime, then they're probably not going to help much in a civil suit.
> the person claiming defamation would have to prove the person was lying
This is true in the US and most countries, but the problem is that the suit itself can be expensive and painful enough that the victim just deletes the blog post (or disavows it) to make it the suit go away. They may do this even though they'd likely win the case eventually.
> but if I write up a blog post about my experience being assaulted, does that mean I can’t have my blog indexed by Google? I don’t have the right to promote my story and get as many people to read it as possible?
No, no one has "the right" to have their website indexed by Google. Google is a private, for-profit business, not a public utility. People should have the right to speak (and in the US they do), but they don't/shouldn't have the right to be published and promoted by private companies.
Taken to its logical extreme, if Google were allowed or forced to index everything on the web, they would also have to include (and promote) sites that they may find morally repugnant, which is a violation of their First Amendment rights.
> The burden is reversed in defamation cases, and the person claiming defamation would have to prove the person was lying, which would be impossible if the person actually committed the crime.
Yes and no. The burden of proof for both sides is lower in a civil case. You might well be able to ‘prove’ that you didn’t commit a crime if you had a good enough story and convinced the jury of it.
I think all of these question might be answerd by traditional libel and defamation laws rather than right to be forgotten.
In Germany it seems that your hypothetical rape victim could go to jail:
> Criminal Code (StGB) - Section 186 - Defamation
> Anyone who asserts or disseminates a fact in relation to another which is likely to make him despicable or belittled in public opinion shall, unless this fact is demonstrably true, be punished with imprisonment for up to one year or with a fine and, if the act is committed publicly, in a meeting or by disseminating content (Section 11 (3)) is punishable by imprisonment for up to two years or a fine.
Note that "public action" means that the government can file the criminal charges even without the victims consent and "private action" means that the victim or their family has the sole power to charge the accused and has to the work of prosection. The "public action through represenation" is the case when the goverment does the prosecution but only at the victim's request.
Note that these laws are probably full of complicated jurisprudence creating exceptions for cases of public relevance and for "desabafo" (venting).
Ok, but let's also imagine the opposite... let's say I am assaulted, but fail to get a conviction for the person who assaults me.
Am I allowed to tell people that I was assaulted by the person? Am I allowed to write down my story of being assaulted, and tell other people about my experience? Can I warn my friends about this person?
If I write up my personal experience of being assaulted and post it on my blog, can my assailant order me to take it down just because I was unable to get a conviction? Can someone else force me to take down my own story about my own life, just because it involves someone else?
I can't imagine telling a rape victim, "sorry, you don't get to tell people your story because you weren't able to get a conviction"