Reflecting on the Right to be Forgotten
I&#x27;m guessing very few, if any, people here have ever felt a need to be forgotten. There was a time only a couple short decades ago when a person who made mistakes could do the work to make things right, make themselves a better person, and move on with their life. Now that&#x27;s extremely difficult if not impossible. Mistakes are newsworthy and get indexed; redemption isn&#x27;t and doesn&#x27;t. That&#x27;s not to say that everyone who makes mistakes redeems themselves. But those who do, nowadays, still have to enter every new job, every new relationship, with the dark past just a few keystrokes away.<p>I would like to stress that this is a very new development. As such, I think it merits discussion beyond a simple black-and-white free speech analysis. I would urge you all to look beyond abstract principles and consider also the human impact that these policies have on actual people&#x27;s lives. Try to imagine, if you can, what it&#x27;s like for a person who has done the hard work to right their wrongs after landing in the news. Don&#x27;t they deserve to be allowed to shut the door on their past when it&#x27;s no longer who they are?<p>I also think it&#x27;s important to note that we (in the U.S.) do already recognize such a right when it comes to criminal records, through expungement proceedings. We routinely remove convictions from people&#x27;s criminal records. I don&#x27;t think any disagreement with this &quot;right to be forgotten&quot; is complete if it can&#x27;t be reconciled with that.