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Tim Worstall at Forbes makes a very different assessment of the ruling [1]. He concludes that news portals might now be liable under all the different laws of t

Tim Worstall at Forbes makes a very different assessment of the ruling [1]. He concludes that news portals might now be liable under all the different laws of their readers different jurisdictions. I'm quite doubtful that the international laws would work that way. But maybe someone with more of a background in law can shed some light on these differing opinions? Might there actually be reason for concern for every web page operator who allows comments? [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/10/11/every-website-that-accepts-comments-now-has-a-european-problem/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/10/11/every-web...

krapp 13y ago
here's a direct link to the decision http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-126635 http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-... But what if you just run an imageboard or a forum? Any CRUD app with user generated content? Does it not matter if you have a policy of deleting generally threatening comments? I have a hard time accepting that interpretation, it's just too absurd to me ...
- diminoten 13y ago
  Utterly off topic, but why is there JSON in that url?
  - krapp 13y ago
    Shows up in the URL bar when you go to the HUDOC page and I just cut and pasted... I just noticed it's not actually necessary so I took it out of my comment.
Shivetya 13y ago
well the part that worries me is the references to "hate speech". How much restricted speech is there in the EU? The most obvious bugaboo I can think of would be Nazis. Is that at the member level or EU wide? The idea that popularity has been decided increase risk of going beyond the boundaries of "acceptable" speech is door wide open to abuse. It basically tells any site operator the more popular the more diligent you must be because you should know better
- PeterisP 13y ago
  Probably in every european country there is some extremist group with an agenda "let's kill all [ethnic] or at least drive them out of our country", and of course it shows up in internet comments, so some hate speech exists - but the regulation of it varies from country to country.
  - nraynaud 13y ago
    It's even a continuous political issue, since there are always talks about the next countries entering Schengen, UE or Eurozone and the associated inner-migrations.
- nraynaud 13y ago
  This is a "by country" thing, there is no European constitution and all European law is aimed at countries, not people (but some stuff is redacted like: "countries should have a law that does this or that"). Quite a lot of nazi comments (nationalist stuff, the idea of having been wronged in the last war, the idea that your race is superior, etc.) would probably fly in many countries I think. It's mostly the call for murder or physical arm that would trigger sanctions in many countries. And also groups with history of violence (like violent soccer fans or political activist whose demonstration always turn violent).
nraynaud 13y ago
It's very ambitious to try to comment ECHR decisions in US context, it's a very technical thing where a citizen contests a Law of his own country in front of European judges. Those decision are to be interpreted as general, meaning that all the similar cases in other countries would be ruled in the same direction. I would let the european lawyer blogs do the interpretation.

krapp 13y ago

here's a direct link to the decision http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-126635 http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-... But what if you just run an imageboard or a forum? Any CRUD app with user generated content? Does it not matter if you have a policy of deleting generally threatening comments? I have a hard time accepting that interpretation, it's just too absurd to me ...

diminoten 13y ago
Utterly off topic, but why is there JSON in that url?
- krapp 13y ago
  Shows up in the URL bar when you go to the HUDOC page and I just cut and pasted... I just noticed it's not actually necessary so I took it out of my comment.

Shivetya 13y ago

well the part that worries me is the references to "hate speech". How much restricted speech is there in the EU? The most obvious bugaboo I can think of would be Nazis. Is that at the member level or EU wide? The idea that popularity has been decided increase risk of going beyond the boundaries of "acceptable" speech is door wide open to abuse. It basically tells any site operator the more popular the more diligent you must be because you should know better

PeterisP 13y ago
Probably in every european country there is some extremist group with an agenda "let's kill all [ethnic] or at least drive them out of our country", and of course it shows up in internet comments, so some hate speech exists - but the regulation of it varies from country to country.
- nraynaud 13y ago
  It's even a continuous political issue, since there are always talks about the next countries entering Schengen, UE or Eurozone and the associated inner-migrations.
nraynaud 13y ago
This is a "by country" thing, there is no European constitution and all European law is aimed at countries, not people (but some stuff is redacted like: "countries should have a law that does this or that"). Quite a lot of nazi comments (nationalist stuff, the idea of having been wronged in the last war, the idea that your race is superior, etc.) would probably fly in many countries I think. It's mostly the call for murder or physical arm that would trigger sanctions in many countries. And also groups with history of violence (like violent soccer fans or political activist whose demonstration always turn violent).

nraynaud 13y ago

It's very ambitious to try to comment ECHR decisions in US context, it's a very technical thing where a citizen contests a Law of his own country in front of European judges. Those decision are to be interpreted as general, meaning that all the similar cases in other countries would be ruled in the same direction. I would let the european lawyer blogs do the interpretation.