With a new decision by the European Court of Justice, sites will from now on be held responsible for the comments posted on them.
The decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in a case concerning the news site Delfi from Estoniahas gone viral and is already making the rounds on the web. Specifically, it states that the news site: “should have prevented the publication of comments with clearly illegal content.”
A related article by Ars Technica of the United Kingdom states that the decision is contrary to the principles of the European Union regarding e-commerce and at the same time "acts to distance the web from the principles of protection of expression and privacy that created it, as we know it so far."
Other publications, such as the Media Legal Defence Initiative, cite and explain some of the rules that prompted the court to make this decision, such as "hate speech" in the comments, their posting on an information website and not, for example, on a personal blog, the insufficient actions taken to effectively remove them, as well as the possibility of prosecuting the commenters - alongside the lenient sanctions imposed on Delfi.
It is worth noting that this specific decision is a confirmation of an earlier one from 2013, according to which there was no violation of Delfi's right to frankness and free expression.
Finally, according to statements by T. T. McIntyre, president of Digital Rights Ireland, there are no immediate consequences from the decision, but it may cause legal developments that will undermine freedom of expression on the internet, promoting the idea of "mediators" who approve comments, etc., with the result that sites will become very careful regarding the content they ultimately approve.
