Huge Loss For Free Speech In Europe: Human Rights Court Says Sites Liable For User Comments
Found on Techdirt on Tuesday, 16 June 2015
The court had found that even if a website took down comments after people complained, it could still be held liable because it should have anticipated bad comments in the first place.
The Court then notes that freedom of expression is "interfered with" by this ruling, but it doesn't seem to care -- saying that it is deemed "necessary in a democratic society."
For a Europe that is supposedly trying to build up a bigger internet industry, this ruling is a complete disaster, considering just how much internet innovation is based on enabling and allowing free expression.
This is one of the most idiotic rulings out there, but a similar system already exists. In China. Everybody in the western world complains about the strict chinese censorship (except for a few judges obviously), yet this decision will have pretty much the same effect. A democratic society should be able to deal with "bad" comments in a civilized way and tolerate different opinions. Totalitarian regimes don't.