FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ON THE INTERNET - CASE 18/18 EVA GLAWISCHNIG-PIESCZEK V FACEBOOK IRELAND LIMITED

Abstract

The democratic world has invested much effort to achieve the conditions for full freedom of expression of the media, but still with that freedom other human rights and freedoms must be respected. What if the publication of information that is incorrect has the potential to cause some sort of damage or harm to an individual or the public? The problem of misinformation then raises the issue of legal interference and regulation. The vast problem today is that any posting on social networks can be spread and be shared with high speed, and the mere fact that a court ordered the removal of an original defamatory statement will often have no positive effects for the injured party since the information has been and will continue to be shared on the profiles of other users. In its recent decision in Case C-18/18 Eva GlawischnigPiesczek v Facebook Ireland Limited, the Court of the European Union sets out rules for imposing an obligation on an information society service provider, ie. a social network, to delete and /or block access to identical and equivalent posts and links previously declared to be illegal without breach of Article 15 of the E-Commerce Directive. This is a significant judgment with global implications. Before this judgement, at the request of a national court, posted content in the requesting state has been removed, but after this judgement, the force of the law can compel the controversial content in question to be removed from all servers around the world. An analysis of the judgment leads to the conclusion that the confirmation that a national court is entitled to request the removal of posts on a worldwide basis points to the fact that the Court of the European Union understands the limitations and unfairness of solutions when social networks restrict access to offensive and defamatory content only for IP addresses from a specific country. This decision extends the reach of EU legislation concerning the internet outside its borders. However, a high level of caution should be maintained so that excessive scrutiny of published content does not violate the freedom of expression.