The ECtHR Grand Chamber: owner of a social media page is responsible for others' comments


Judges confirm a national court decision to fine a right-wing French politician for mean comments under his post.

Julien Sanchez, mayor of the French town of Beaucaire and leader of the National Rally faction in the Occitanie Regional Council, got fined along with other users and ordered to pay compensation to a victim of hatred for mean comments that both he and his Facebook friends left on the social media’s public wall.

Sanchez disputed the court decision in the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), saying he was not liable for the remarks left by others under his post while the European Convention of Human Rights guaranteed the freedom of expression, but on 15 May 2023 the ECtHR Grand Chamber ruled otherwise

The Grand Chamber’s judgement says the owner of a social media page is held accountable for comments made by others that violate the law.

It thus confirmed a previous French court decision regarding the case of the French politician, who was fined for hostile statements made by other individuals under his Facebook post. 

“…The applicant… was convicted for the offence of incitement to hatred or violence against a group or an individual on grounds of religion, following his failure to take prompt action to delete comments posted by third parties on the ‘wall’ of his Facebook account… […] The applicant alleged that his conviction had breached his right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the Convention. The criminal case had turned solely on the applicant’s lack of vigilance and failure to react in respect of comments posted by others. It had thus raised the question of the shared liability of the various actors involved in social media,” the Grand Chamber reminded.

"As the applicant had decided to make his Facebook 'wall' publicly accessible and had 'authorised his friends to post comments', in the Court’s view he could not have been unaware, in view of the local tensions and ongoing election campaign around that time, that his choice was clearly not without certain potentially serious consequences," the ECtHR judges stated.

In 2011, as a member of the right-wing party National Rally and a candidate for parliament while serving on the Occitania Regional Council, Sanchez wrote a post criticizing his political rival. Two individuals left comments under this publication containing racist remarks towards Muslims and North African immigrants. Sanchez later urged his supporters to be more cautious in their statements but did not remove the comments.

A resident of the city of Nîmes, Leila T. filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office regarding these hatred and racially negative comments. As a result, both commentators and the page owner were fined 3,000 euros each and jointly ordered to pay 1,000 euros in compensation to the victim.



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