EU Courts Can Order Facebook To Remove Illegal Comments Worldwide – European top court

LONDON — Europe’s top court said on Thursday that an individual
country can order Facebook to take down posts, photographs and
videos and restrict global access to that material, in a ruling
that has implications for whether countries can expand content bans
beyond their borders.

The European Court of Justice’s decision came after a former
Austrian politician sought to have Facebook remove disparaging
comments about her that had been posted on an individual’s personal
page, as well as “equivalent” messages posted by others. The
politician, Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek, a former leader of Austria’s
Green Party, argued that Facebook needed to delete the material in
the country and limit worldwide access.

The decision is a blow to big internet platforms like Facebook,
placing more responsibility on them to patrol their sites for
content ruled illegal.

The case has been closely watched because of its potential
ripple effects for regulating internet content. The enforcement of
defamation, libel and privacy laws varies between countries, with
language and behavior that is allowed in one nation prohibited in
another. The court’s decision highlights the difficulty of creating
uniform standards to govern an inherently borderless web and then
enforcing them.

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