As you may know, Google has a new way for people in Europe to request search results to be removed. This stems from the recent controversial “right to be forgotten” ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union that requires it and other search engines to take such requests.

We knew Google was already getting thousands of requests before it even launched the new tool, but it’s gotten thousands more in the less than 24 hours since it did start providing it. Reuters reports:

After putting up the online form in the early hours of Friday, Google received 12,000 requests across Europe, sometimes averaging 20 per minute, by late in the day, the company said.

“The court’s ruling requires Google to make difficult judgements about an individual’s right to be forgotten and the public’s right to know,” a Google spokesman said.

According to the report, representatives from the EU’s data protection authorities will discuss implications of the ruling at a meeting next week.

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