Facebook Inc. can be forced to remove posts anywhere in the world to protect European Union users from hateful content, the bloc’s highest court ruled in a case that widens a chasm with the U.S. on freedom of speech and privacy.
European courts can force platforms such as the social-network giant to seek and destroy such content once they’ve been alerted, the EU judges said in a binding decision on Thursday. Courts can also order a worldwide removal as long as they take international law into account when they issue the edicts, the judges said.
“Today’s ruling essentially allows one country or region to decide what internet users around the world can say and what information they can access," said Victoria de Posson, senior manager in Europe at the Computer & Communications Industry Association, an industry group that includes Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook as members.
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