Reports & Books

the Right (Not) To Be Forgotten

Within the scope of The Right NOT to be Forgotten on the Internet: Freedom of Expression Assessment of the Application of the Turkish Right to be Forgotten Measures under Law No. 5651 report of the İfade Özgürlüğü Derneği (İFÖD – Freedom of Expression Association), it has been observed and identified that in recent years, individuals increasingly request that their futures not be negatively affected by news or published content related to events caused by themselves or third parties in their past, with reference to their right to be forgotten.

These requests have been frequently evaluated as violations of personal rights under article 9 of Law No. 5651 by criminal judgeships of peace and the judgeships issued decisions of access blocking and content removal involving such news articles and content even though they did not contain any violation of personal rights or violation of the law at the time of their publication. Therefore, such requests may only be considered favourably in cases where there is no superior public interest, and especially in exceptional cases where ordinary citizens have the right to “control their past” and “to request that certain issues erased from their past and forgotten.”

This study evaluates how the right to be forgotten is applied by the criminal judgeships of peace for the purpose of “protecting personal rights” within the scope of Law No. 5651. The study evaluates further the requests, whether the judgeships referred to the judgments of the Court of Cassation, the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights in their decision-making processes, and therefore whether they took into account the relevant case-law.

• The Right NOT to be Forgotten on the Internet: Freedom of Expression Assessment of the Application of the Turkish Right to be Forgotten Measures under Law No. 5651