According to Scott Marshall’s blog post, Google was obliged to remove certain pictures of Max Mosley after a ruling by the French Court. It is also interesting to note that Google was forced to pay damage fees to Max Mosley due to privacy infringement.

From a business perspective Google is a company that offers a service to its customers in the form of convenience. Simply stated, Google didn’t post these pictures on the Internet, instead they make it easily accessible. Shouldn’t Max Mosley be attempting to file for breach of privacy against the original posters of the content. After all, it isn’t Google’s responsibility to filter what is put on the Internet.They are just a search engine just like any other company with a similar service. For example, Yahoo, provides a very similar service as Google, and has just as much authority to spread Mosley’s pictures over the web. But Google was the target instead merely based on their size and power in the industry.

Another point to note is the French court ruled that Google must make a program to filter the content that invades Mosley’s privacy. Essentially, this program is censoring the free speech privilege of Google users.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/06/google-remove-max-mosley-orgy-pictures