Facebook suffers major legal blow after top EU court rules countries can order online platforms to remove defamatory content worldwide
- European Court of Justice said countries can order platforms to remove content
- Defeat for Facebook as could increase their responsibility for online messages
- European Union law now ‘does not preclude’ courts from removing information
Facebook has been dealt a major legal blow as a top EU court said countries in Europe can order online platforms to remove defamatory content worldwide.
The European Court of Justice ruling on Thursday is seen as a defeat for Facebook as it could increase their responsibility for what is appearing on the internet.
European Union law ‘does not preclude’ courts from ordering ‘the removal of information or to block access worldwide,’ a statement by the court said.
The decision will be considered a victory for EU regulators, who are ambitious to see US tech giants meet tightened European standards over hate speech and offensive content.
Facebook has been dealt a major legal blow as a top EU court ruled countries in Europe can order online platforms to remove defamatory content worldwide (stock image)
A statement said: ‘EU law does not preclude a host provider such as Facebook from being ordered to remove identical and, in certain circumstances, equivalent comments previously declared to be illegal.
‘In addition EU law does not preclude such an injunction from producing effects worldwide, within the framework of the relevant international law which it is for Member States to take into account’.
The ruling comes after Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek, chair of the Greens party in Austria, sued Facebook Ireland in the Austrian courts.
She was seeking an order that the company remove a comment the Austrian courts ruled was ‘harmful to her reputation’ from the social network.
European Union law ‘does not preclude’ courts from ordering ‘the removal of information or to block access worldwide,’ a statement by the court said
A Facebook user had ‘shared on that user’s personal page an article from the Austrian online news magazine oe24.at entitled “Greens: Minimum income for refugees should stay”, the statement said.
‘That had the effect of generating on that page a “thumbnail” of the original site, containing the title and a brief summary of the article, and a photograph of Ms Glawischnig-Piesczek.
‘That user also published, in connection with that article, a comment which the Austrian courts found to be harmful to the reputation of Ms Glawischnig-Piesczek, and which insulted and defamed her.’
The judgement, delivered by the European Court of Justice, ruled that the directive on electronic commerce does not prevent countries from ordering Facebook to remove ‘unlawful’ information.
It added that EU law does not prevent a Member State from removing information covered by the injunction or from blocking access to that information worldwide within the framework of the relevant international law.