Facebook suffers legal blow in EU court over hate speech

Yahoo – AFP, October 3, 2019

The EU's top court has ruled that national courts in Europe can order Facebook and other
online platforms to remove defamatory content worldwide (AFP Photo/DENIS CHARLET) 

Luxembourg (AFP) - Facebook on Wednesday was dealt a major blow in the EU's top court, which ruled that national courts in Europe can order online platforms to remove defamatory content worldwide.

The decision will be seen as a victory for EU regulators, who are ambitious to see US tech giants meet tightened European standards over hate speech and offensive content.

Last week, the same court decided that Google was not legally compelled to apply the EU's strict "right to be forgotten" rules globally, in a victory for the search giant.

In a closely watched judgment, the European Court of Justice said EU law "does not preclude" courts from ordering "the removal of information or to block access worldwide," a statement said.

The latest case was brought originally to an Austrian court by Greens party politician Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek, who requested the removal of Facebook posts that the judges found defamed her and could be seen by users of the social network around the world.

The complaint also concerned messages from fictitious accounts, which according to the Greens, had called Glawischnig-Piesczek a "corrupt" person and which the social network refused to delete.

A higher Austrian court referred the case to the EU's top court for an opinion and the judgment, which cannot be appealed, will now be used as a reference Europe-wide.

With the decision, Facebook and similar platforms such as Twitter, face a greater obligation to monitor their content and take down content found to be offensive or hateful, even from fake accounts.

Facebook slammed the EU court's decision, saying "it undermines the long-standing principle that one country does not have the right to impose its laws on speech on another country."

It also deplored the obligation to track down "equivalent" content that duplicates offensives or hateful language.

'Chilling effect'

"In order to get this right, national courts will have to set out very clear definitions on what 'identical' and 'equivalent' means in practice," a Facebook statement said

"We hope the courts take a proportionate and measured approach, to avoid having a chilling effect on freedom of expression," it said.

Glawischnig-Piesczek, the victim of the hate speech, hailed the decision as "a historic success for human rights against web giants".

"It in no way infringes freedom of opinion," Glawischnig-Piesczek told the Austrian news agency APA.

EU-wide rules on hate speech are limited.

So far, online giants including Google's Youtube, have agreed to voluntarily take down hateful or dangerous content, including those linked to terrorism, within 24 hours.

However, the EU is expected to propose tougher Europe-wide measures including fines if Facebook and others fail to comply with orders.

Google wins EU fight against worldwide 'right to be forgotten'

Yahoo – AFP, Catherine KURZAWA, 24 September 2019

Google hailed the ruling, saying it has worked Google has worked "to strike a
sensible balance between people’s rights of access to information and privacy"

Google is not required to apply an EU "right to be forgotten" to its search engine domains outside Europe, the EU's top court ruled Tuesday in a landmark decision.

The European Court of Justice handed victory to Google in the case, seen as crucial in determining whether EU online regulation should apply beyond Europe's borders or not.

The US internet giant had argued that the removal of search results required under EU law should not extend to its google.com domain or its other non-EU sites.

The court ruled that, while a search engine operator such as Google must carry out "de-referencing" of links as demanded by a regulator or court in an EU state to all European versions of its sites, that "right to be forgotten" did not need to go further.

"There is no obligation under EU law" for search engine operators such as Google "to carry out such a de-referencing on all the versions of its search engine," the court said.

But it did stress that de-referencing on EU sites must include measures to "seriously discourage" a European internet user being able to get around the "right to be forgotten" by accessing unrestricted results from a search engine on a non-EU domain.

That demands "geo-blocking", which Google says it already uses effectively in Europe.

Savvy internet users, however, can get around that measure with a VPN that masks the user's location, or by going to some non-Google search engines.

Google hails win

The EU court case, seen as pitting individuals' rights to privacy online against freedom of information, stemmed from a legal battle waged by France since 2014 to have Google apply the "right to be forgotten" to all its search domains.

If France had won, it could have deepened a rift between Europe and the United States, which is home to most of the internet's behemoths and whose President Donald Trump has railed against what he sees as EU meddling in US business.

In the end, though, the court found that EU law on the issue did not seek to have the "right to be forgotten" extend beyond its borders.

Google hailed Tuesday's decision by the EU court.

"It's good to see that the court agreed with our arguments," its lawyer, Peter Fleischer, said in a statement, adding that Google has worked "to strike a sensible balance between people's rights of access to information and privacy".

The US company and other stakeholders had warned that authoritarian countries outside Europe could abuse global de-referencing requests to cover up rights violations.

"It's a balanced decision. You can't impose extraterritorial effects when it comes to de-referencing a person," said Yann Padova, a data privacy lawyer with the Baker McKenzie firm in Paris who was not involved in arguing the case.

"What would we say if China started demanding de-referencing of content accessible to French users?" he asked.

Closely watched case

Google's position was bolstered in January by a non-binding opinion from the EU court's top legal advisor, advocate general Maciej Szpunar, who recommended judges "should limit the scope of the de-referencing that search engine operators are required to carry out, to the EU".

The case had been closely watched, especially as Europe has also already emerged as a global rule-setter in terms of data protection on the internet.

A 2016 General Data Protection Regulation it enacted that covers all EU citizens and residents has forced many sites and companies around the globe to comply with its measures.

In terms of the "right to be forgotten" legal fight, France's data regulator, the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertes (CNIL), had argued that, for de-referencing to be effective, it must apply to all domains wherever they are.

In 2016, CNIL fined Google 100,000 euros ($110,000) for non-compliance. Google appealed to France's highest court, which in turn referred to the European Court of Justice, ending up with Tuesday's ruling.

Net neutrality in the air after EU Parliament votes in favor of TSM

The European Parliament has voted in favor of a telecommunications bill that drops roaming charges across the EU. However, the bill also threatens net neutrality in the 28-nation bloc.

Deutsche Welle, 27 Oct 2015

The European Parliament Tuesday voted in favor of the Telecommunications Single Market (TSM) bill after amendments proposed by several Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were rejected.

This is excellent news for consumers & business! EP approves legislation on #netneutrality & end of #roaming

— Günther H. Oettinger (@GOettingerEU) October 27, 2015

"Today's vote puts an end to the legislative vote on the TSM. The parliament has shown leadership throughout the…process," said MEP Pilar del Castillo Vera after the EU Parliament passed the bill.

"There can be no doubt that the Internet is a valuable asset. It is full of opportunities for all. We need to handle this asset very carefully. This regulation establishes the guarantees required to ensure the Internet gives equal access to all without discrimination," Castillo Vera noted.

The TSM effectively ensures that telecommunications companies cannot charge mobile users while roaming within the 28-nation union.

Net neutrality in danger?

However, the bill also made telecommunications regulators and courts the final arbiters of net neutrality, leaving the Internet's future under their mandate.

"We are disappointed that the European Parliament has decided not to legislate on this critical issue," Estelle Masse, policy analyst at digital rights organization Access Now, said in a statement.

Goodbye #NetNeutrality :(

— Bastian Allgeier (@bastianallgeier) October 27, 2015

"By not supporting the necessary amendments to give clarity to the text, the Parliament has left it up to courts and national regulators to determine its meaning," Masse noted.

The bill's language remains vague with regards to the establishment of so-called "fast lanes" and zero-rating schemes.

'Determined'

World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee said earlier this week that if the text remained unchanged, it could "threaten innovation" within the 28-nation bloc.

However, critics of the bill in its current form remain committed to ensuring net neutrality, or the concept of an open Internet that is treated equally, and "without discrimination, restriction or interference regardless of its sender, recipient, type or content."

.@Europarl_EN just adopted #TSM without amendments - Amendments for strong #netneutrality have all been rejected

— Access (@accessnow) October 27, 2015

"We are determined to work closely with regulatory authorities in order to bring the necessary clarity to the text during the nine-month consultation period," Massed said.

"The fight for net neutrality is not over. The EU telecoms regulators are now tasked to finish the work started by the EU legislators to ensure that free expression online is protected."

How digital is Europe? New EU Commission index ranks countries based on ‘digital performance’ (spoiler: Denmark wins)

As it prepares to present its strategy for a EU-wide ‘Digital Single Market’, the European Commission today released (a new index), ranking all 28 EU member states based on their digital performance.

Tech.eu, RobinWauters, 24 February 2015

Today at the well-attended #Digital4EU stakeholder forum in Brussels, the European Commission has announced a new Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI). The index aims to highlight how digital Europe’s 28 member states really are, and to demonstrate that borders – and I quote – “remain an obstacle to a fully-fledged Digital Single Market – one of the top priorities of the Juncker Commission”.

The new tool, presented today at the event, provides per-country snapshots of connectivity (how widespread, fast and affordable broadband is), Internet skills, the use of online activities from news to shopping, and how key digital technologies (e-invoices, cloud services, e-commerce, etc) and digital public services such as e-government and e-health are developed across Europe.

The data is mostly from 2013 and 2014 and essentially aims to provide an overview of how digital Europe is. You can argue that the best you can do for this is glorified guesswork, but FYI the DESI combines more than 30 indicators and uses a weighting system to rank each country based on its digital performance.

To calculate a member state’s overall score, each set and subset of indicators were given a specific weighting by European Commission experts. Connectivity and digital skills each contribute 25% to the total score. Integration of digital technology accounts for 20%, while online activities (‘use of Internet’) and digital public services each contribute 15%.

As you can see above, right at the top is Denmark, with a 0.68 digital performance score out of 1, but really Nordic countries are – perhaps unsurprisingly – scoring well across the board; Sweden and Finland are also in the top 5 alongside Belgium and The Netherlands.

Not so high on the European ‘digital performance’ leaderboard are countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia and Italy.

Some other findings from the Index, which overall combines more than 30 indicators:

– A majority of Europeans use the Internet on a regular basis: 75% in 2014 (compared to 72% in 2013), ranging from 93% in Luxembourg to a meager 48% in Romania

– Europeans are apparently very eager to access audiovisual content online: 49% of Europeans who go online have played or downloaded games, images, films or music. 39% of households that have a TV watch video on demand

– Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) face barriers with e-commerce: only 15% of SMEs sell online – and of that 15%, fewer than half do so across borders

– Digital public services are an everyday reality in some countries but almost non-existent in others: 33% of European Internet users have used online forms to send information to public authorities, ranging from 69% in Denmark to only 6% in Romania

– 26% of general practitioners in Europe use e-prescriptions to transfer prescriptions to pharmacists over the Internet, but this varies from 100% in Estonia to 0% in Malta

The European Commission is currently preparing its Digital Single Market strategy, which will be presented in May. (By the way, to make sure startups’ voices are heard as the plans take shape, check out this survey we’ve put together in collaboration with Nesta and the European Digital Forum).

If you’re interested in digging in: the DESI dataset is available here.

(Featured image credit: buffaloboy2513 / Shutterstock)

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