Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off Tuesday on the so-called “right to be forgotten” law, which requires search engines to remove Internet users' personal information from their results in certain cases, the Kremlin announced in a statement.
“The Federal Law establishes that a search engine operator, upon an individual’s request, shall stop providing links giving access to the applicant’s information that is disseminated in violation of Russian Federation law, is false or outdated,” the statement read.
In accordance with the new law, which was adopted earlier this month by parliamentarians, search engines are required to comply with such requests within 10 days of receiving them.
As noted by Russian news site Meduza, it remains unclear what criteria will be used to evaluate the correctness and relevance of the disputed information.
The legislation has been criticized by Russian Internet companies concerned about balancing the right to privacy against the freedom of information.