4 ms·

If you operate in a country you still have to follow that countries laws. Being an 'internet company' doesn't change that. Now for this specific case, whether

by mhurron 14y ago

If you operate in a country you still have to follow that countries laws. Being an 'internet company' doesn't change that. Now for this specific case, whether Facebook has offices in Germany or if they sell to Germans, I don't know but if any of those are true they may have to abide by by these laws. Also, no, no company should be allowed to do what it likes.

terhechte 14y ago
They have offices in Germany (albeit not in Schleswig-Holstein, as far as I know, though close to it, in Hamburg).
hdra 14y ago
I have been curious about these things for a while. When is an internet company considered breaking the law, if all they do is put their product online and make it accessible on the internet (i.e. from everywhere)? Say, a web app X that shows a collections of cat pictures uploaded by the users, and country Y where cat pictures are banned in every media. How does this work?
- hnandy 14y ago
  I can't answer your question completely and I'm by no means a legal expert, but I know that German law states that you have to abide by German laws if you website is targeting visitors/customers living in Germany, even if you aren't German yourself. Short example: An American hosting a personal WW2 website in the US with a huge German user-base has a good chance of getting in trouble in Germany if he denies the existence of the holocaust on it. It took quite a while to dig up some facts about this topic, but take a look at http://juris.bundesgerichtshof.de/cgi-bin/rechtsprechung/document.py?Gericht=bgh&Art=pm&Datum=2010&Sort=3&nr=51134&pos=0&anz=48&Blank=1 http://juris.bundesgerichtshof.de/cgi-bin/rechtsprechung/doc... (in German, but can be translated with Google translate). According to that article our BGH thinks that the New York Times has to take down defamatory statements about a German/Spanish resident that went to court in Germany if they don't want to break German law. Further down they even add the fact that the NYT had ~15,000 registered German users back then to solidify the claim that the NYT is targeted at a German audience. IMO this shows that some connection to German residents has to exist for German law to be concerned. From what I know, a German telephone number or offering a German translation of a website might suffice for this connection to be made, too. On another note: I have not found any case where an extradition to Germany took place, but I have heard of non-internet-cases where people got into trouble when they traveled to Germany.

by mhurron 14y ago

terhechte 14y ago

They have offices in Germany (albeit not in Schleswig-Holstein, as far as I know, though close to it, in Hamburg).

hdra 14y ago

I have been curious about these things for a while. When is an internet company considered breaking the law, if all they do is put their product online and make it accessible on the internet (i.e. from everywhere)? Say, a web app X that shows a collections of cat pictures uploaded by the users, and country Y where cat pictures are banned in every media. How does this work?

hnandy 14y ago
I can't answer your question completely and I'm by no means a legal expert, but I know that German law states that you have to abide by German laws if you website is targeting visitors/customers living in Germany, even if you aren't German yourself. Short example: An American hosting a personal WW2 website in the US with a huge German user-base has a good chance of getting in trouble in Germany if he denies the existence of the holocaust on it. It took quite a while to dig up some facts about this topic, but take a look at http://juris.bundesgerichtshof.de/cgi-bin/rechtsprechung/document.py?Gericht=bgh&Art=pm&Datum=2010&Sort=3&nr=51134&pos=0&anz=48&Blank=1 http://juris.bundesgerichtshof.de/cgi-bin/rechtsprechung/doc... (in German, but can be translated with Google translate). According to that article our BGH thinks that the New York Times has to take down defamatory statements about a German/Spanish resident that went to court in Germany if they don't want to break German law. Further down they even add the fact that the NYT had ~15,000 registered German users back then to solidify the claim that the NYT is targeted at a German audience. IMO this shows that some connection to German residents has to exist for German law to be concerned. From what I know, a German telephone number or offering a German translation of a website might suffice for this connection to be made, too. On another note: I have not found any case where an extradition to Germany took place, but I have heard of non-internet-cases where people got into trouble when they traveled to Germany.