Global Censorship

The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that EU governments can order Facebook to take down content worldwide after an Austrian politician was insulted online.

Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek, a leading figure in Austria’s left-progressive Greens Party, was branded a “lousy traitor of the people” and a “corrupt oaf”, among other things, in an Austrian news article concerning her party’s support for a minimum income for refugees which was shared on a Facebook user’s personal page, according to court documents.

The Green politician demanded Facebook Ireland, which manages Facebook in Europe, remove the post, and secured an Austrian court order commanding it when the U.S. subsidiary failed to comply — but was not satisfied when the social media giant only restricted the content in Austria.

Now the Court of Justice of the European Union has decreed that censorship orders issued by an EU state can apply globally, as EU law “does not preclude [a] host provider from being ordered to remove worldwide information disseminated via a social network platform”.
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