A French court has ordered Google to remove links that take users to nine explicit images of former Formula One chief Max Mosley at an orgy with prostitutes.
In 2008, Mosley sued the defunct News of the World after it published a front-page story by filming Mosley with five prostitutes at a self-organised orgy.
Mosley has admitted being in sado-masochistic ‘romp’ with the five women and shelled out £2,500, while rejected the orgy was Nazi-themed.
However, he won £60,000 for violation of privacy following a judge’s ruling that there was no essence to the claims that there had been a Nazi theme and established that his privacy had been violated.
In 2011, Mosley also won a similar ruling in France after a judge ordered the newspaper’s owner News Corp to pay £32,000 in damages as prints of the paper and the video were distributed across the Channel.
Google associate general counsel Daphne Keller said that the court’s request would necessitate it to develop a new software filter to constantly seize new versions of the posted images and block them.
"This is a troubling ruling with serious consequences for free expression and we will appeal it," Keller said.
"Even though we already provide a fast and effective way of removing unlawful material from our search index, the French court has instructed us to build what we believe amounts to a censorship machine."
