314
EVI LASKARI, HONORARY VOLUME
A similar possibility is offered by Google when users send messages late on a
Saturday night.
28
Practical solutions are also offered in addition to technologi-
cal applications, such as the use of pseudonyms on social networking sites, as is
mainly the case in Japan.
29
Another proposed practical solution is the possibility
to change one’s name after graduation from school.
30
c. The vortex of oblivion and memory - Argentina
The case of Argentine pop star Virginia Da Cunha focuses on a series of racy pho-
tographs she had posed for when she was young. She subsequently sued Google
and Yahoo after a number of years had passed, requesting that they be taken off
various websites, arguing that they violated her right to be forgotten. Google as-
serted that it could not comply technologically with the court’s broad legal in-
junction to remove all of the pictures, while Yahoo stated that the only way they
could comply would be to block all sites referring to Da Cunha that originated
from its Yahoo search engines. Nevertheless, an Argentine judge sided with Da
Cunha and after fining Google and Yahoo, he ordered them to remove all sites
containing sexual images that contained her name. The decision was overturned
on appeal, on the grounds that Google and Yahoo could only be held liable if it
could be shown that they knew that the content was defamatory and had thus
negligently failed to remove it. But there are at least 130 similar cases pending in
Argentine courts demanding the removal of photos and user-generated content,
mostly brought by entertainers and models. The plaintiffs include the Sports Il-
lustrated swimsuit model Yesica Toscanini who won her case; indeed, when a
user of Yahoo Argentina plugs her name into the Yahoo search engine, the result
is a blank page
31
.
28. See Jon Perlow, New in Labs: Stop Sending Mail You Later Regret, Gmail Official Blog, 6 Oc-
tober 2008, available at:
-
sending-mail-you-later.html, last access June 10, 2013.
29. See Hiroko Tabuchi
,
Facebook Wins Relatively Few Friends in Japan, N.Y. Times, 10 Janu-
ary 2011, p. B1, presenting the outcome of research conducted of a sample of 2,130 Japa-
nese citizens, 89% of whomwere reluctant to reveal their true name on the Internet.
30. See Holman W. Jenkins
,
Jr., Google and the Search for the Future, Wall St. J., 14 August
2010, p. A9.
31. Vinod Sreeharsha, Google and Yahoo Win Appeal in Argentine Case, N.Y. TIMES,
Aug. 20, 2010, at B4.
