Facebook, the EU Court of Justice requires the cancellation of illegal content
2019-10-03T16:28:09.870Z
Any Member State of the European Union may impose on Facebook the deletion of illegal content and the blocking of the consultation of these by users. This is what the EU Court of Justice has ordered, in a sentence in which it also obliges the social network to operate autonomously, should it become aware of the presence, on its pages, of illegal information. The Court's decision comes following the denunciation of the then Austrian deputy Eva Glawischnig Piesczek, who had cited Facebook Ireland before the Austrian courts. The policy asked that Facebook be ordered to delete a comment posted by a user on this social network, deemed detrimental to his honor, as well as identical statements with equivalent content. Furthermore, as the Court notes, the comment could be consulted by any Facebook user. Against this situation, the Oberster Gerichtshof (Supreme Court, Austria) asks the Court of Justice to interpret the directive on electronic commerce. "According to the aforementioned directive - reads the sentence - a provider of hosting services, such as Facebook, is not responsible for the information stored if it is not aware of their unlawfulness or if it acts immediately to remove them or to disable access to them not as soon as it becomes aware of it, this exemption from liability does not, however, prejudice the possibility of requiring the hosting service provider to terminate a violation or prevent a violation, in particular by deleting the illegal information or disabling access to it. against - the law further states - the directive prohibits imposing a provider of hosting services to monitor, in general, the information memorized by it or to actively seek facts or circumstances that indicate the presence of illegal activities ". According to the provisions of the Court, Facebook must "remove the information stored and whose content is identical to that of information previously declared unlawful or to block access to it, regardless of the author of the request to memorize such information ". The social network will also have to have that information "stored and whose content is equivalent to that of information previously declared unlawful or to block access to it, provided that the surveillance and search for the information subject to this injunction are limited to information they convey a message whose content remains substantially unchanged from that which gave rise to the declaration of illegality and which contain the elements specified in the injunction and provided that the differences in the formulation of such content are equivalent to that which characterizes the information previously declared unlawful are not such as to force the hosting service provider to make an independent assessment of such content (the hosting service provider can therefore resort to automated research techniques and means) ". Finally, the social network will have to remove "the information subject to the injunction or to block access to the same at a global level, within the framework of the relevant international law, which it is for the Member States to take into account".
The CEO of Fb, Mark Zuckerberg
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03 October 2019 Any EU Member State may require Facebook to delete illegal content and block users from consulting it. This is what the EU Court of Justice has ordered, in a sentence in which it also obliges the social network to operate autonomously, should it become aware of the presence, on its pages, of illegal information. The Court's decision comes following the denunciation of the then Austrian deputy Eva Glawischnig Piesczek, who had cited Facebook Ireland before the Austrian courts. The policy asked that Facebook be ordered to delete a comment posted by a user on this social network, deemed detrimental to his honor, as well as identical statements with equivalent content. Furthermore, as the Court notes, the comment could be consulted by any Facebook user. Against this situation, the Oberster Gerichtshof (Supreme Court, Austria) asks the Court of Justice to interpret the directive on electronic commerce. "According to the aforementioned directive - reads the sentence - a provider of hosting services, such as Facebook, is not responsible for the information stored if it is not aware of their unlawfulness or if it acts immediately to remove them or to disable access to them not as soon as it becomes aware of it, this exemption from liability does not, however, prejudice the possibility of requiring the hosting service provider to terminate a violation or prevent a violation, in particular by deleting the illegal information or disabling access to it. against - the law further states - the directive prohibits imposing a provider of hosting services to monitor, in general, the information memorized by it or to actively seek facts or circumstances that indicate the presence of illegal activities ". According to the provisions of the Court, Facebook must "remove the information stored and whose content is identical to that of information previously declared unlawful or to block access to it, regardless of the author of the request to memorize such information ". The social network will also have to have that information "stored and whose content is equivalent to that of information previously declared unlawful or to block access to it, provided that the surveillance and search for the information subject to this injunction are limited to information they convey a message whose content remains substantially unchanged from that which gave rise to the declaration of illegality and which contain the elements specified in the injunction and provided that the differences in the formulation of such content are equivalent to that which characterizes the information previously declared unlawful are not such as to force the hosting service provider to make an independent assessment of such content (the hosting service provider can therefore resort to automated research techniques and means) ". Finally, the social network will have to remove "the information subject to the injunction or to block access to the same at a global level, within the framework of the relevant international law, which it is for the Member States to take into account".
