Facebook handed unwanted job as global cop for online hate

The EU court decided that in some cases platforms can be ordered not just to remove identical content, but also posts that are equivalent to such hateful and illegal ones. — AFP

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 US 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 Oct 3. Courts can also order a worldwide removal as long as they take international law into account when they issue the edicts, the judges said.