Crossing the line

For want of a multilateral regulator, the reach of European internet law now extends worldwide. It is deeply problematic.

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Concerns are being raised about the growing purview of European law online, but the ruling also sets a precedent for other nations, which are developing their own privacy and hate speech laws.

The past of the internet has caught up with its acrimonious present. The European Court of Justice has decreed that Facebook must comply globally with a takedown order issued by the national court of any of the 28 member-nations of the European Union. All because an Austrian politician was called a “corrupt oaf” online, and her national court agreed that it amounted to vilification. Europe sees itself at the cutting edge of internet regulation, and is impatient with America’s inability or unwillingness to rein in the Silicon giants based on its soil. While Facebook is believed to have facilitated illegal intervention in politics in the US and UK, talk of breaking it up remains just that. But nothing can justify another nation or group of nations pinning on the badge of internet supercop. Such a projection of the laws of one country onto the world has not been seen since colonial times.