Last Thursday the EU's highest court issued a controversial ruling that permits individual governments to remove content from Facebook worldwide. Currently, that ruling is final and may not be overturned. As an American citizen this should be shocking and downright terrifying news. Countries with far less extensive rights to free speech may now be able to censor the Internet globally. The potential for abuse is high, and the ruling raises fears of foreign interference.
The ruling was reached in a case against Facebook from 2016. Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek, a politician from Austria, asked the tech-company to remove posts against her calling her a "lousy traitor of the people" and a "corrupt oaf." In America it's not uncommon to hear insults like these on social media directed at our president and other politicians.
CEO of Facebook and possible cyborg Mark Zuckerberg plans on fighting the ruling in court. He believes that the ruling "... undermines the long-standing principle that one country does not have the right to impose its laws on speech on another country. It also opens the door to obligations being imposed on internet companies to proactively monitor content and then interpret if it is “equivalent” to content that has been found to be illegal."
The ruling was reached in a case against Facebook from 2016. Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek, a politician from Austria, asked the tech-company to remove posts against her calling her a "lousy traitor of the people" and a "corrupt oaf." In America it's not uncommon to hear insults like these on social media directed at our president and other politicians.
CEO of Facebook and possible cyborg Mark Zuckerberg plans on fighting the ruling in court. He believes that the ruling "... undermines the long-standing principle that one country does not have the right to impose its laws on speech on another country. It also opens the door to obligations being imposed on internet companies to proactively monitor content and then interpret if it is “equivalent” to content that has been found to be illegal."
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