Internet privacy bill gets initial approval in Russian assembly

Russian parliament gave initial approval on Tuesday to a law that would require Internet search sites to remove outdated or irrelevant personal information from search results on request from users.

The bill, passed by the State Duma lower house in its first reading, seeks to emulate European Union rules on the “right to be forgotten”, under which search engines must take down certain results that appear under a search of a person’s name.

The regulation has sparked a debate over censorship issues because Web firms have to make judgment calls on individual cases, balancing rights to personal privacy against the freedom of information.
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