When social networking sites first made their appearance in the world roughly less than two decades ago, their impact could have hardly seemed to be as profound and far-reaching as now.
Today, they are under constant scrutiny, their content more than contentious and governments around the world are raising this or that fears about their working. Now comes the latest in the line of such curbs on the most popular social website of them all — the Facebook, who may be ordered to remove offensive content, posted by users in the European Union (EU) and then also hunt for similar posts anywhere else in the world.
This latest warning comes from an EU court opinion, to Facebook, which has stated that it constitutes a threat to freedom of speech. The case, which was brought by an Austrian Green Party politician seeking to curb defamatory comments from the platform, is the latest to question how far social media companies must go to police online content.
Such an order could have far-reaching consequences, both globally and within countries. If implemented, it could open the flood gates for further such orders. Once an EU court has ordered Facebook to remove content, an injunction may be sought demanding that the US company seek out all identical posts by any user worldwide, particularly in countries that do not have a starkly distinguished record of democracy and rights.
What’s worse, the online giant may also be told to hunt down all similar information posted by a user whose post is found to be illegal. The situation is pretty touchy because the line that divides freedom of expression and censorship is rather thin. European censors have to tread with caution and care.