What is the liability of Internet operators (Facebook, Google, YouTube, Instagram, etc.) for violations by users? Is there an obligation – for publishers and bloggers – to remove defamatory comments? And if the news is fake, who is responsible for it? What are the liabilities in the case of the sharing of videos or photos that depict third parties?
The directive on electronic trade has established, back in the year 2000, the principle according to which Internet brokers are not liable for the content published by Internet website managers and users. The evolution of the Internet, and the spreading of video and social network platforms, has progressively challenged this principle.
Even if at the legislative level the situation has remained substantially unchanged, and even if many countries have passed laws on the subject of protection of copyright, the courts have often intervened to define the neutrality of operators and order more and more stringent rules.
The difficult balance between the interests of the individual and the right to information and knowledge make for interesting and complex questions for lawmakers and operators of the sector, also because of the impossibility to find concrete answers in the old publishing laws.
Organized in cooperation with the Chairs of “Legal Data Processing”, “Advanced Legal Data Processing” and the specialization courses in “Digital Investigations” and “Data Protection” of the University of Milan (Prof. Giovanni Ziccardi – Prof. Pierluigi Perri).
