Chapter 7 The Right to be Forgotten: Sergio’s Case

• Pages: 156-180
• Author: Sebastián Becker Castellaro

The Right to be Forgotten:

Sergio’s Case

Sebastián Becker Castellaro

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The Right to be Forgotten: Sergio’s Case

To Sergio and his family

Could you imagine your best friend, your sister, or your

mother dying because some guy thinks he is going to start a revolution

by placing bombs around the city? What would you say if one of these

victims burns alive, and no one helps them out of fear, incompetence,

or indifference? How would you react if I told you that while that per-

son was burning to death, some unscrupulous person recorded it and

uploaded the video on social media to satiate a society addicted to likes

and shares; a society that consumes superficial images with no context

or meaning? And that these images were also published by the yellow

press, indifferent to that body who was a human being with stories,

joys, sorrows, and fears.

This happened to Sergio, a boy from a humble, working-class

family from the real and anonymous Chile. Sergio’s case touches on

sensitive issues and allows us to reflect on how we use information

technologies and the right to intervene (or not) in mass communica-

tions, information, and transparency. This chapter reflects on how a

photo showing a body burned by a bomb can provide new perspec-

tives on truth, news, privacy, and whether cruel and gruesome photos

are covered under freedom of speech.

Sergio Landskron’s case portrays the old tension between freedom

of speech and the right to privacy, honor, and truth. However, the new

factors are social media, hyper-connectivity, and information immedi-

acy. The Spanish journalist Marta Peirano refers to this phenomenon as

the economy of attention — with large companies such as Google, Face-

book, Twitter, or Instagram investing billions of dollars to “keep your

eyes glued to the screen for as long as possible, without ever reach-

ing the saturation point.”1 The digital age has modified the private and

public spheres, and this case reflects this shift. Privacy is in crisis in the

1 Marta Peirano, El enemigo conoce el Sistema [The enemy knows the system]

(Barcelona: Penguin Random House, 2019), p. 23.