Ethical implications of the right to be forgotten

Abstract

In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights published its first resolution regarding the right to be forgotten. (ML & WW v. Germany, 2018). It was based upon the case of two convicted murderers who finished their time in prison in 2008. For the sake of their newfound need for a good reputation, they both had asked Wikipedia and the online versions of some German and American newspapers to delete their names in reference to the crime they had committed. This is not a new phenomenon; many people all around the world have demanded the erasure of their names, initials, or other data from online newspapers, platforms, and databases on the internet.