Freedom, authority and knowledge on line

Abstract

Web search engines are a very important mean to fight information overload's consequences, but this makes them the gate to digital information of any type and purpose. The cyberspace is accessed through such complex and automated tools: software agents execute secret and complex algorithms and make information easily reachable or hidden, but anomalies and bugs may have serious consequences. Private entities provide such services, on a global (e.g. Google), or local but relevant scale (e.g. Baidu). After the Google Spain case, literature on the right to be forgotten is growing. This paper aims at go further, investigating both the right to access on line information and to be correctly and neutrally indexed by web search engines. The law must regulate this topic, making them work in a neutral and non-discriminatory way, even if they work cross-borders and are private subjects. Otherwise, the Information Society will even more controlled by the dictatorship of the algorithm.