Facebook canbe ordered to police and remove illegal content worldwide, Europe's top courtsaid on Thursday, in a landmark ruling that rights advocates say could allowauthoritarian regimes to silence critics.
The ruling came just a week after the same court toldGoogle that it does not have to apply Europe's "right to beforgotten" law globally, garnering praise from freedom of speech advocatesas courts try and figure out just how much responsibility for content platformsshould have.
The judgment by the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said Facebook may have to comply with requests to take down content globally under certain conditions.
"EU law does not preclude a host provider likeFacebook from being ordered to remove identical and, in certain circumstances,equivalent comments previously declared to be illegal," the Court said ina statement.
"In addition, EU law does not preclude such aninjunction from producing effects worldwide, within the framework of therelevant international law."
Facebook slammed the ruling, saying that it was notthe role of social platforms to monitor, interpret and remove speech that maybe illegal in any particular country.
