EU law does not prevent a hosting provider such as Facebook from
with a previously declared illegal comment, the same word for the
and, under certain circumstances, to remove similar comments.
That was decided by the ECJ on Friday.
NOR does EU law prevent such an injunction from being
relevant international law, the consideration of which is a matter for the Member States, produces effects worldwide.
This, too, was decided by the ECJ, generating some criticism among lawyers.
The Supreme Court in Austria asked for the interpretation of the E-Commerce Directive. According to this Policy, a hosting provider such as Facebook is not responsible for any stored information if it is not aware of its unlawful nature or if, as soon as it becomes aware of it, it takes immediate action to provide such information. or block access to it.
However, this exclusion does not prevent a hosting provider from being ordered to stop or prevent an infringement, including by removing or blocking access to illegal information.
On the other hand, the Directive prohibits a hosting provider from generally monitoring the information it stores or actively investigating circumstances indicating illegal activity.
In its judgment, the Court of Justice replies to the Supreme Court that the
E-commerce Directive, which strikes a balance between the
different interests involved, to allow a court of a Member State to
not be prevented from giving up on a hosting provider,
- to remove or block access to the information it stores which has the same content as information previously declared unlawful, regardless of who is the customer of the information
has given; - to remove or block access to the information it stores which has the same content as information previously declared unlawful, provided that the monitoring and research of such an injunction is carried out information concerned is limited to information which conveys a statement the content of which has remained essentially unchanged in relation to the content which led to the finding of illegality, and which includes the details contained in the and provided that the differences in the wording of that identical content are not such as to force the hosting provider to provide an autonomous form of information which has been declared unlawful. assess this content (for example, the hosting provider can use automated techniques and means of investigation);
This is a very far-reaching judgment, which also explicitly makes not only Facebook, but also all providers of chat platforms, forums and the like. It could therefore be that similar requests occur more frequently and that one, as a provider of such a platform, should be prepared to be able to meet these demands technically.
