In the United States, our system of justice relies heavily on an individual’s right to due process. Before anyone can be convicted of a crime, he or she must be given a fair trial by a jury of their peers with the right to legal counsel if they so desire. Unfortunately, the standards that we use in our courts do not transfer to the Internet. Indeed, according to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, webmasters and site owners cannot be held liable in court for malicious or libelous statements made by users of their websites nor do they have to remove them, even if they know that statements are false or malicious.

Things are different in Europe, however, where privacy still seems to be an issue of importance. According to the BBC, France is currently considering a “Right-to-Forget” law that would allow web users the ability to request certain information about them online be deleted.

From the article:

A proposed law in the country would give net users the option to have old data about themselves deleted.

This right-to-forget would force online and mobile firms to dispose of e-mails and text messages after an agreed length of time or on the request of the individual concerned.

Divina Frau-Meigs, Professor of American Studies and Media Sociology at the Paris Sorbonne University, believes the law would counter against unguarded communications becoming an official record.

“This debate is also connected to the right of presumption of innocence in many ways, so that people are not found guilty even before they start on life,” she explained.

“People and young people need to be protected by the State so that there is fairness in the way this protection is established,” she added.

A right-to-forget could protect an individual’s privacy and stop them from being permanently held to ransom by unguarded actions from their past.

While France’s proposed “right-to-forget” law is interesting, there are many questions about its practicality. First, how would users report inaccurate or libelous information? Do they send an e-mail to the webmaster? Do they file a report with law enforcement? Second, does the web publisher have the right to appeal the request? In the United States, libelous statements are never considered legal speech, but publishers will often argue that their content is “newsworthy.” It is up to the courts to decide whether the information was in fact libelous. Would this work differently in France?

In the Wild West of the World Wide Web, conjecture, rumor, and slander are just a few of the all too common problems that plague web surfers. The explosive growth of social networking sites hasn’t helped either, allowing inaccurate or libelous information to reach the four corners of the globe in mere minutes. As such, more and more governments (including our own) are considering how to deal with the problem of anonymous Internet attacks. Is France’s proposal the right approach? It certainly has a lot of question marks, but it’s an interesting idea. We’ll have to wait and see whether it amounts to anything in the long run.