Intermediary liability for online user comments under the European convention on human rights

The Internet has transformed modern society, including the law. In almost all fields of law the Internet’s influence on the development of existing principles and rules is currently being analysed and examined, including in the field of human rights law. Due to the advent of the Internet, numerous conceptual and practical problems have arisen in connection with the right to privacy, freedom of expression and the right to property. In this article, 2 I will discuss the recent case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter ‘the Court’ or ‘the Strasbourg Court’) dealing with freedom of expression when contracting States are faced with questions relating to the imposition of liability for unlawful3 user comments which are posted anonymously online or under a pseudonym. The Strasbourg Court has recently delivered judgments in two cases, including in a Grand Chamber case, where the Court, for the first time, has had to formulate the general principles to be applied when an assessment is made of the latitude that contracting States have under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter ‘the Convention’) to impose liability on online intermediaries for unlawful comments posted on their websites by anonymous users.