Europe’s top court ruled Thursday that a European judge can order Facebook and other online companies to remove content or block access to the photos, videos, or posts in question worldwide.
The European Court of Justice ruling could have far-reaching implications for how tech companies police photos, videos, and posts that may be posted on their platforms and declared illegal under laws that differ across countries where they operate.
Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek, an Austrian politician, sued Facebook Ireland, the social media platform’s international headquarters, in Austrian courts over a comment posted by a Facebook user on their personal page. Glawischnig-Piesczek wanted the court to order Facebook remove the comment, as well as “equivalent” content.
Austrian courts ruled the post was harmful to Glawischnig-Piesczek’s reputation and insulted and defamed her and should be removed. Facebook requested the content be limited in Austria only, but the Austrian court said no.
Facebook criticized the ruling from the Luxembourg-based European court, which cannot be appealed, saying in a statement it “raises critical questions around freedom of expression and the role that internet companies should play in monitoring, interpreting and removing speech that might be illegal in any particular country.”
“It undermines the longstanding principle that one country does not have the right to impose its laws on speech on another country,” the Menlo Park, California-based company said. “It opens the door to obligations being imposed on internet companies to proactively monitor content and then interpret if it is ‘equivalent’ to content that has been found to be illegal.”
Europe and the United States have in recent years placed heightened pressure on tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google to improve their efforts to rid their platforms of harmful, false, and extremist content.
Representatives from Facebook, Twitter, and Google appeared before lawmakers last month to discuss the steps they’re taking to combat the spread of hateful posts, photos, and videos but were emboldened to devote more resources to their efforts.
While lawmakers in the U.S. have discussed new measures to regulate internet companies, including a federal law focused on protecting users’ privacy, a framework has yet to emerge. Europe, however, has more restrictive privacy laws and allows European Union citizens to request links containing personal information be removed from search results under its “right to be forgotten” law.
The European Court of Justice ruled last week in a case involving Google that the links can only be removed within the boundaries of the EU, rather than globally.
