On Wednesday, a Canadian company, Equustek Solutions Inc., convinced the Canadian Supreme Court to temporarily prevent Google from displaying worldwide the sites of a rival company, in a case that may prove key in deciding how global search engines apply their policies globally.
The matter started as a case between Equusteck and Datalink Technologies Gateways Inc. over a product that the latter had rebranded and sold as its own. Equustek requested that Google remove search results for the other companys websites while the case between them was settled, and Google did so, but only on Google.ca, the Canadian version of the site. Equustek then sought an order against Google to prevent the search engine from displaying its rivals sites worldwide. The Canadian Supreme Court agreed in a 7-2 decision.
Google originally set up its websites for different countries as a way of geofencing, or creating slightly different versions of the website to comply with slightly different national rules. Germany, for instance, has anti-hate laws that are reflected on Google.de, while Thailands blasphemy laws are taken into account on Google.co.th.
However, the judges who sided with Equustek ruled that blocking the search results on Google.ca only was ineffective. The problem, in this case, is occurring online and globally. The Internet has no borders; its natural habitat is global, the judges wrote.
In addition to the issues of geofencing, the case also raised concerns about freedom of expression, as Googles defense claimed that the search engine has the right to decide which websites to index and deindex. (Indexing a site makes means that it is in Googles organizational system, and shows up when you search it. Deindexed sites will not appear.)
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/06/30/the_canadian_supreme_court_orders_google_to_make_a_worldwide_change.html