Auto-complete feature can be extremely troubling when dealing with defamation. For example, imagine whenever someone starts to type your name in Google and before they finish, it auto-completes YOUR NAME scam. The auto-complete can be about as aggravating to users sometimes as your auto correct feature, 8 out of 10 times it might be right, but when it’s WRONG is WAY off.
While this feature can be very helpful, it can also be devastating, especially when the material posted is 100% false. Once the information is out there for all to see it’s hard to take it back. The main goal at that point is just getting it removed. Even if it’s incorrect or made up, it’s still available for other to read once posted. Removing it can be a long process and a very detailed, time consuming effort, even for those of us experienced in cleaning up these types of cyber attacks.
Who do you go to for help to correct or delete this “misinformation” posted? As addressed in the article, the issue of jurisdiction is now impacting every aspect of defamation and criminal internet law. For example, the new wave of internet crimes now involves two different locations, and frequently, two different countries. So if it was complicated before, now it just became a bigger mess to sort through.
By the way, we believe, in this case, Google is 100% correct. They are “ not required” to comply with Japanese court law. However, I suspect that overtime, they will either learn to either be more “sympathetic” to such requests or laws will catch up with them to force them to comply. Either way it’s a ever changing learning experience for all of us.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/26/google_autocomplete_japan/
