In 2011, Marc Ablan was arrested over charges he served three years in prison for. He was eventually exonerated of the allegations and released, but the articles about his arrest remained online, affecting his applications for employment.

Nowadays, those articles don’t remain, but it will take a while before every Google result pointing to this unfair miscarriage of justice is completely gone. He’s not a celebrity. He’s not a public figure. Yet something false that didn’t even go viral affects his life to this very day.

This is where the idea of the “Right to Be Forgotten” comes in. First recognized by the European Union, the Right to Be Forgotten gives individuals the ability to request the removal of outdated, irrelevant, or misleading personal information from search engines and online archives.

It’s not about rewriting history but about recognizing that people should not be forever chained to their worst moments, especially when those moments no longer reflect who they are.

If the Philippines were to adopt the Right to Be Forgotten, it would change countless lives for the better. Let’s talk about it:

8. Everyone deserves a second chance

No one should be punished forever for something that happened so long ago. Think of all the people who went viral for all the wrong reasons, and have earned the ire of the Filipino public for being, at worst, annoying. Remember Chris Lao? Tracy Borres? No?

Yet their worst moments are still easy to find online to this very day, and the scars from past trauma still exist.

Imagine if the original video in which they earned the ire of people just disappeared and turned into urban legend. It would be a load off their shoulders. And remember: guys like them were the lucky ones.

7. To protect people’s mental health

Let’s face it: when people go viral for all the wrong reasons, the least they would wish to happen is for the earth to just open up and swallow them whole. In other cases, the things they wish would happen are even more grim, and some of them ultimately act on those terrible thoughts.

The Right To Be Forgotten gives them something to look forward to: the promise that yes, it will get better in time.

6. To correct the record

Look back to Mr. Ablan’s situation: He was arrested and imprisoned, but the charges turned out to be false. Despite that, the only thing the news bothered to cover was the arrest and the charges, not his subsequent exoneration.

Some random person being arrested over a decade ago turning out to be innocent, does not seem like news at all to the average outlet, after all.

The Right To Be Forgotten allows for an expedited process where Mr. Ablan could ask for the deletion of the articles by law, and not have to rely on the kindness of these publications as he requests that they take down or update said articles.

5. Those of us who were born without the internet always had this

Some of us did the dumbest things ever when we were kids, and all that remains of those moments are funny stories to tell and retell. Today’s kids? Those moments are likely somewhere on Instagram or TikTok, and they will be forever. If you’re around 40 or older, think of the most embarrassing things that happened when you were a kid. Aren’t you glad they’re not online? Why deny today’s generation that blessing? After all…

4. Nobody should be defined by their worst moments

There’s that old joke about a bridge builder who did one other thing despite building bridges all his life, and only being known for that one other thing. As funny as it is, it’s also a horrible thought. We need to have some control over our digital footprints, and what we may have done two decades ago should not define us even today.

3. To protect victims and survivors

When something terrible happens and it goes public, the news affects not just the person who did the terrible thing, but the ones they hurt as well. The Right to Be Forgotten allows these survivors of abuse or violence to move on past their victimhood. They deserve to not have the worst thing to happen to them be the first thing people learn about them.

2. To prevent an unfair bias in opportunities

If someone’s on-video antics annoyed you a few years back, would that affect your chances of hiring them if they applied for a job with you today? Probably, right? This is precisely why the Right to be Forgotten levels that playing field: if it’s a non-factor, it should remain a non-factor. Let sleeping dogs lie, as they say.

1. Ultimately, it restores some sanity in the wild, wild internet

Giving people more control over their digital identities builds trust in technology and digital platforms. When people have more agency, they feel more empowered online and get to be their authentic selves more, knowing full well that real life and online life mirror each other just a little more because of the Right to be Forgotten.