ECtHR rules commercially-run internet news portal liable for offensive comments of its readers

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that an internet news portal in Estonia was liable for offensive comments posted by its readers below one of its online news articles about a ferry company.

This was the first case in which the Court had been called upon to examine a complaint about liability for user-generated comments on an internet news portal.

The applicant company, Delfi AS, which runs a news portal run on a commercial basis, complained that it had been held liable by the national courts for the offensive comments posted by its readers.

At the request of the lawyers of the owner of the ferry company, Delfi removed the offensive comments about six weeks after their publication.

The case therefore concerned the duties and responsibilities of internet news portals, which provided on a commercial basis a platform for user-generated comments on previously published content, and some users – whether identified or anonymous – who engaged in clearly unlawful hate speech which infringed the personality rights of others.

The Delfi case did not concern other fora on the internet where third-party comments could be disseminated, for example an internet discussion forum, a bulletin board or a social media platform.

The question before the Grand Chamber was not whether the freedom of expression of the authors of the comments had been breached but whether holding Delfi liable for comments posted by third parties had been in breach of its freedom to impart information.

The Grand Chamber found that the Estonian courts’ finding of liability against Delfi had been a justified and proportionate restriction on the portal’s freedom of expression, in particular, because: the comments in question had been extreme and had been posted in reaction to an article published by Delfi on its professionally managed news portal run on a commercial basis; the steps taken by Delfi to remove the offensive comments without delay after their publication had been insufficient; and the 320 euro fine had by no means been excessive for Delfi, one of the largest Internet portals in Estonia.