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Monday, April 12, 2021
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Right to be Forgotten forced Google to Remove 170,000 Links

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Google is threatened with a $100 million lawsuit over the nude celebrity pictures that have been splashed all over the internet following the iCloud hack. Earlier this week, Google has removed over 170,000 links after being forced to do so by the European right to be forgotten.

Right to be Forgotten

Even though the removal has nothing to do with the iCloud nude celebrity pictures, the issue is somewhat similar. If you haven’t heard of the Right to be Forgotten, you should know that it is a ruling made by the European Court of Justice that gives people the power to request the removal of links to content that they no longer want to appear online.

Such requests are being sent out to Google for it to remove them from its search engines. This ruling only applies in the countries inside the European Union, so Google won’t show the content inside the EU, but if you search for it from the U.S. you will find it. Basically, only the links are removed from the search engine, not the content.

right to be forgotten

Up until now, Google has received about 150,000 requests, which add up to half a million links to be removed. After careful examination, it went on to remove 41% of it, or 171,183 links, leaving the rest online.

This measure has been dubbed by Tim-Berners Lee, Word Wide Web founder, as draconian. He joins the many Internet freedom advocates who are protesting the Right to be Forgotten ruling.

So what were the websites the people wanted to delete themselves from? Facebook tops the list, followed by Profile Engine and YouTube. France was the country with the most requests, followed closely by Germany, Britain and Spain.

Would you want to have links to content of you removed from the web? Would you want the Right to be Forgotten to come to the U.S.? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

Greece Rating Position Increased by Moody’s

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It’s great to see some positive news after a couple of years when news covering the recession were rather bleak. The U.S. faces some serious, even though fragile, signs of economic recovery. Some minimum wages increased while the inflation stays in target.

After many years of continuous struggling, Greece sees the light of day economically speaking. The recession that started in 2008 hit Greece more than most other countries. Right now, Greece still struggles with a debt accounting for around 175 percent of the country’s GDP. Following strikes and popular revolts, the latest conservative government seems to please the rating agencies. Greece rating position increased, Moody’s announced on Friday. From Caa3, Moody’s raised the ratings by two stages up to Caa1.

“The first factor behind the upgrade of Greece’s rating is Moody’s strengthened expectation that the general government debt to GDP ratio will start declining in 2015, after peaking this year according to Moody’s estimates at around 179 percent of (gross domestic product),” the agency said. “Moody’s considers that Greece’s fiscal outlook is more resilient than in the past.”

Greece rating position increased but the country still faces financial problems

Greece was bailed out in 2010 with about $308 billion by the EU and the IMF. But this is not the end for Greece’s problems. Another loan is expected to be contracted in the fall, because the debt level remains too elevated.

Greece Rating Position Increased on Friday

Right now the Greek government has to follow the international lenders’ instructions in order to walk on the safe path. If there was a time for radical solutions, the momentum is lost. More so because Alexis Tsipras, the European Left candidate for the presidency of the EU did not manage to win the elections.

Two other rating agencies, Fitch and Standard&Poor’s, maintain Greece’s credit ratings in the junk area. For Moody’s, politics is interfering with numbers. The rating agency is concerned about the prospect of early elections in Greece. Moody’s refrained from awarding a higher rating to Greece as a consequence.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the conservative president-elect of the European Commission will pay Greece his first visit next week. He will meet Antonio Samaras, the Greek Prime-Minister and fellow conservative to talk about fiscal discipline in the public sector. The money given by the EU and IMF came with strings attached. Greece had to undertake drastic budget cuts which lead to increasing unemployment and overall poverty levels. Greece rating position increased by the notches, although the country has to borrow money again in the fall.

Ebola Epidemic Treatment Funded by EU

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The news about the frightening spread of Ebola is all over the web, raising an unprecedented awareness about the virus. As we previously reported, this is the largest Ebola outbreak in history.

Doctors without Borders currently advice people to treat Ebola from early signs of it using a basic saline solution.  After the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the situation has currently stabilized and no new case has been reported for 21 days in Guinea. According to World Health Organization, there are currently 40 people who survive at 100 reported cases of Ebola virus infection. Ebola epidemic treatment is not specific, but saline is an efficient one that is available with funding support from European Union. From Wednesday on the EU will offer 2 million Euros in West Africa.  The amount will raise the current humanitarian effort to fight Ebola disease at 3.9 million Euros.

Ebola Epidemic Treatment is currently supervised by EU experts

EU assigned a relevant number of experts in the area working with local authorities. At the same time, there are organizations working with EU that will deliver this help locally: World Health Organisation, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. According to The Global Post, the current Ebola Epidemic is one of the most deadliest, as well as one of the largest in terms of geographical coverage.  Until now, Ebola has spread in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with a total of 1,200 cases and 672 deaths.  As we can observe, these countries are some of the poorest countries from all over the world, making Ebola disease one of the numerous “poverty diseases”.

Ebola Epidemic Treatment

As you could suspect, there are serious grounds to believe that the virus could arrive in Europe, but, as health officials announced, there are ways of tracking it effectively, so it shouldn’t spread.  Because the virus has an incubation period of 21 days and we find ourselves in the summer high-peak travel season, chances are on one hand to plan a summer vacation that includes distance traveling and, on the other hand, your infection with Ebola virus to be invisible during the incubation period.

Preparations are currently made to avoid such potential problems in areas directly related with infected geographical areas, like Ivory Coast. At the same time, although there is an increased level of precaution taken for an efficient early Ebola epidemic treatment in Europe, experts say there are reduced risks for the virus to spread in Europe, mostly because cases have been signaled in remote areas and infected people were encouraged to stay in isolation until they fully recovered.

Ukraine signs free trade agreement with the EU

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Ukraine signs a free trade agreement with EU

After the recent EU parliamentary elections and the intense conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, an important step has been taken. The EU on the one side and Ukraine, along with Moldova and Georgia, on the other, signed an economic agreement. Troubled Ukraine signs a free trade agreement, so let us have a look at the consequences.

Central and Eastern Europe has changed from the homogeneous area we are used to be familiar with to a more complex terrain. In 2004 a handful of Central European states joined the EU, followed soon by Romania and Bulgaria in 2007. The EU halted its admission process afterwards in an attempt to reassess the state of the affairs in the midst of the economic crisis. Right now, Ukraine, one of the remaining buffer states between the two large powers, the EU and the Russian Federation, decided to take the path towards the first by signing the free trade agreement.

Political remarks on the free trade agreement

“Signing these Association Agreements with Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas should not be seen as the end of the road, but as the beginning of a journey on which the European Union and these three partner countries are embarking together today,”, Barroso, the President of the EU Comission, stated.

The Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, signed the agreement after more than a half a year delay. The previous president, Yanukovych, decided to ignore the accord in November and instead turn its face towards the Russian Federation.

“Ukraine should embark on the path of peace, dialogue and accord. The priority is to conduct substantial talks between the authorities in Kiev and the southeast” Putin states in a rather hypocritical manner, as long as the Russian troops stormed in Ukrainian territory without a thorough prior dialogue.

“It is their sovereign right, but the Russian Federation will have to take measures in case it negatively effects the local market,” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson said.

Poroshenko calls for peace, although signals in his discourse that he does not give up Crimea yet.  It is hardly a substantial indicator of real peace to follow soon, as last week there have been deadly clashes reported between Ukrainian forces and the Eastern separatists.

Although widely regarded as a success, it remains to be seen how the accord’s consequences will translate in an overall improvement of the Ukrainian people’s wellbeing. The country currently struggles with severe economic instability and GDP reduction, as well as a huge shadow economy accounting for around 50 percent of the GDP. The EU, on the other hand, has a straight-forward policy of enlarging the community free market under its own pre-established regulations. We will probably not see milk and honey flowing to Ukrainians too soon, as the national adoption of regulations and the subsequent economic revamping will surely last for a couple of years. The free trade agreement will open wide Ukraine’s gates for large European companies. Oil extraction companies will surely have a say in the future Ukrainian economic life, as the land promises to have rich resources of shale gas.

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