Website Operators’ Liability for Offensive Comments: A Comparative Analysis of Delfi as v. Estonia and MTE &amp; Index v. Hungary

Jūratė Šidlauskienė; Vaidas Jurkevičius

doi:10.1515/bjlp-2017-0012

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Website Operators’ Liability for Offensive Comments: A Comparative Analysis of Delfi as v. Estonia and MTE & Index v. Hungary

Baltic Journal of Law & Politics

Volume 10 (2017): Issue 2 (December 2017)

By: Jūratė Šidlauskienė and Vaidas Jurkevičius

Open Access

|Mar 2018

Abstract

In 2013 and 2015, the ECtHR in the famous case of Delfi AS v. Estonia recognised the possibility for a website operator to be liable for the delayed removal of illegal comments of internet users. In this case the ECtHR formulated criteria for a website operator’s liability for damage caused to a third party by its visitor comments. The judgment of 2016 in the case of MTE & Index v. Hungary the ECtHR modified the criteria for a website operator’s liability, interpreting it to the benefit of web managers. This article seeks to reveal the criteria for the liability of a website operator and to draw some general guidance that can be applied in similar cases.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/bjlp-2017-0012 | Journal eISSN: 2029-0454

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Language: English

Page range: 46 - 75

Submitted on: Aug 2, 2017

Accepted on: Dec 11, 2017

Published on: Mar 7, 2018

Published by: Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy and the Faculty of Law of Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania)

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 2 issues per year

Keywords:

Delfi AS v. Estonia,

MTE & Index v. Hungary,

website operators’ liability,

internet commentators’ liability,

liability for offensive comments

Related subjects:

Law,

Law, other,

Social sciences,

Political science,

Political science, other

© 2018 Jūratė Šidlauskienė, Vaidas Jurkevičius, published by Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy and the Faculty of Law of Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania)
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Volume 10 (2017): Issue 2 (December 2017)