Index on Censorship today condemned former motorsports boss Max Mosley’s attack on search engine Google

Testifying to the Leveson Inquiry into the press in London today, Mosley said: “The fundamental thing is that Google could stop this appearing but they don’t or won’t as a matter of principle…The really dangerous things are the search engines.”

Mosley revealed that he was planning to sue Google in Germany and France.

But a spokesman for free speech group Index on Censorship said Mosley’s attack on search engines was ill-advised and potentially dangerous:

“To request that Google remove information is to misunderstand the role of search engines,” said Padraig Reidy, news editor of Index on Censorship. “Search engines are not publishers and cannot be held responsible for everything on the web. If they are held responsible, it would fundamentally alter the web from the free space that has changed the way we live, ultimately rendering the web unsearchable as content is not indexed for fear of complaint.

Index on Censorhsip is covering the Leveson Inquiry live at @indexleveson