Nobody is exactly the same as they were yesterday, or even today, or will be tomorrow, for people as well as things are in a constant change of flux, of which, some of those changes are rather dramatic, some are intensely personal, some are most definitely private, and some are pretty much of blithe unconcern. The thing about the internet is that it is a relentless beast and massive aggregator of data, of all sorts of data, of which some of that data is outdated, embarrassing, wrong, distorted, inconvenient, truthful, untruthful, and all sorts of things, that are part and parcel of life, itself. The thing is that this information skein which relentlessly lengthens day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, with search engines such as Google, social media sites such as Facebook, websites such as Amazon, has the capability and the capacity to remember everything about anything. There wouldn't necessarily be a problem with any of that, if, you, the individual, controlled the narrative, or had a material input into the material, or could cull or edit the narrative, but once information about you gets out into the public space, that control, if it even existed in America, essentiallyends.
Europe, though a recent court case, recognizes that individuals should not be compelled through internet search engines to have their old news, rehashed, over and over again, that is to say, news that may, in fact be true, but no longer has any present-day relevancy or basically represents an unwelcome invasion of a particular person's privacy, who would prefer instead, to simply be left alone, and thereby exerts their now established right to be forgotten. While, not too surprisingly, various news organizations as well as Google, are up in arms about such legislation or law, as if the erasure of certain information off of the internet, somehow changes everything about the free flow of information, the fact of the matter is, the request is reasonable, and should be part of law, throughout the world.
There isn't a good reason, why certain news, especially when it involves non-public individuals, with pictures, with video, with graphics, with comments, with this or that, should be played or be available to the public, ad nauseam, through a few clicks on the internet. It would be one thing, if everyone's interest on the internet was one of pure reasonableness, equanimity, fairness, concern, caring, but the fact of the matter is, the internet, is sort of like a bad Lifetime movie (and they are all bad), in which the dirt about just about everyone can be dug up and displayed, all for fun, or for shame.
People should have a right to be forgotten, people should be entitled to privacy, and people should not have to answer to busybodies throughout the world, about things that have nothing to do with those nosey people that take pleasure through other people's discomfort, misfortune, or embarrassment. The internet is a beast, and a beast without a bridle, is a beast that is out-of-control. The least that Google owes the people that use its search engine, day by day, is to take responsibility for their product and its search results, especially considering that their search engine has made them billions of dollars, and thereby to show the concern and responsibility of being a good steward of this awesome invasiveness and pervasiveness that the Google search engine represents, and to thereby recognize that a reasonable concern for the discretion and consideration of individuals, makes for a better world, and far less evil.