Facebook should erase comments if the police ask

The decision came a week after the same court said Google is not obliged to apply the law of “the right to be forgotten” globally and won the praise of many advocates of freedom of expression.

The European Union Court said social networks like Facebook should respond to demands to eliminate content globally under certain circumstances.

Facebook spoke harshly to the decision, saying it is not the task of social networking platforms to monitor, interpret and erase content, which it considers illegal from a designated country.

The European Commission said the decision was limited only to cases submitted to the court, and there is no concern whether a content is reported by users as illegal.

Facebook found itself in this mess after the chairman of the “parliamentary group Grenens” in Austria indicted the company at the Austrian court, asking it to wipe out a comment posted by a user for whom she said it touches her honour.

The Austrian court sought assistance from the European Court.