In recent years, with the attention of the academic circle paid to big data, a number of research results on “the right to be forgotten” have been published in English academic journals abroad, which span from 2009 to now. Through analysis, it is found that these studies have the following three main characteristics: first, they have reached a basic consensus on the meaning and the source of “the right to be forgotten”: it is a kind of privacy right in the digital age, which means that network users have the right to request data controllers to delete their personal information, and it is a right of repentance and the self-determination of information. This right is derived from “the right to be forgotten” or “the right to forget”, which was generally recognized in the laws of some European countries for people with a criminal record to avoid having their criminal history disclosed. Secondly, scholars not only recognize the importance and the value of it for privacy protection in the big data environment, but also put forward the specifc implementation problems and negative effects that may occur in the judicial practices. Third, the United States is not very active in accepting “the right to be forgotten” that originated in Europe, mainly because the First Amendment of the Constitution gives protection for the freedom of speech and the press without exception, but is not to say that “the right to be forgotten” could not develop in the United States. Some scholars have given reasons for the application of this right in the United States. This paper will research on these main contents and give supplementary opinions on the most controversial issues of the theory and judicial practice of “the right to be forgotten”.