This paper examines the contrast between United States and European Union laws concerning social media users’ right to remove their online presence permanently. Currently, the United States and European Union represent two distinct approaches to the right of individuals to permanently remove personal content from social media. U.S. law favors social media companies keeping profile content within the digital sphere even when that person no longer wants it there. The European Union’s approach social media privacy gives users more rights to remove themselves entirely from social media permanently (General Data Protection Regulation, Article 17, 2012). Using Myres McDougal’s (1959) legal theory of international laws’ effect on national policy, this legal study examines the social media privacy laws of the United States and European Union concerning user control of personal content. From this analysis, future implications of this international conflict, specifically the legal delineation of public and private spheres in the 21st Century, are suggested.

中文翻译：

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数字不朽与“被遗忘的权利”：美国和欧盟有关社交媒体隐私的法律比较

本文研究了美国和欧盟法律之间关于社交媒体用户永久删除其在线状态的权利之间的对比。当前，美国和欧盟代表了两种个人权利，可以从社交媒体上永久删除个人内容。美国法律赞成社交媒体公司将个人资料内容保留在数字领域内，即使该人不再希望在该领域内使用。欧盟采用的社交媒体隐私保护方法赋予用户更多权利，可以将其永久性地完全从社交媒体中删除（《通用数据保护条例》，2012年，第17条）。利用迈尔斯·麦克杜格尔（Myres McDougal，1959年）的国际法法律理论对国家政策的影响，这项法律研究研究了美国和欧盟关于用​​户对个人内容的控制的社交媒体隐私法。根据这一分析，提出了这一国际冲突的未来影响，特别是对21世纪公共和私人领域的法律界定。