A school which was the scene of an alleged race riot is having its Google search results manipulated, apparently to banish unflattering accounts of the incident.
Students at Sir William Stanier school in Crewe, Cheshire, were involved in an inflammatory brawl which saw six students arrested.
Parents of children at the school, which has a substantial Eastern European student body, claim that fight was sparked by racial tensions, and saw English students threatened with knives and screwdrivers.
The school has vigorously denied the claims and, as revealed last week by Heat Street, spent £6,600 of public money trying to influence media coverage of the fight.
Further investigation into the aftermath of the brawl has shown that the EU’s “right to be forgotten” laws were used to manipulate its search results.
The school has denied any involvement in influencing search engine results. But searching its name within the EU brings up a warning that results have been changed under the ruling.
The regime, brought into effect by European judges, means that results can be scrubbed from the web if they are deemed “inadequate, irrelevant, no longer relevant, or excessive”.
Ofsted have carried out an unscheduled inspection of Sir William Stanier School, in Crewe, after a fight where police had to be called
— BBC Radio Stoke (@BBCRadioStoke) February 13, 2016
Comparing search results from the UK, an EU member, with those from the US shows there is indeed a difference.
Unaltered American results have a report of police being called to a race brawl at the school as the second result.
It also carries two more stories about the brawl – one claiming Slovakian children demanded that English pupils “bow down” to them, and another noting that vigilante patrols had sprung up on the streets.
Omg did you hear about that fight ir should I say that war at sir William stanier. So stupid!????
— Daniel (@LegendaryGink) February 4, 2016
In the UK the former two stories hold lower positions, and the third does not appear at all.
A spokesman for the school told Heat Street that it had not contacted Google or made any other efforts to influence the rankings.
Other search terms relating to the school bring up results without the right to be forgotten ruling.
Nonetheless, the school, which has already proved itself willing to go to extreme lengths to guard its reputation, has much to gain from changing how it appears to the outside world.
