29/09/2023, 12:35 SANCHEZ v. FRANCE - 45581/15 (Judgment : No Article 10 - Freedom of expression-{general} : Grand Chamber) [2023] ECHR 418 (1… event, any potential liability of an entity did not rule out liability on the part of the individuals who were the perpetrators of the alleged offences or their accomplices. 106. The Government further submitted that there were a number of different forms of political expression, each of which was controlled and regulated. As regards social media pages and political communication, they enjoyed wide dissemination, extending beyond the circle of supporters and the context of a political rally, while remaining permanently accessible. They highlighted the specificity of social networks as tools of political communication, as opposed to political meetings or rallies. In French law, unlike the provisions applying to remarks made at such rallies, online hate speech fell within a different set of rules, in that the liability of the author of the hate speech could be engaged only as an alternative to that of the “publication director” or the “producer” of an online communication site. They explained this by the fact that the use of social media differed from certain more traditional means of political communication, entailing broad and sustained dissemination over time to a wide audience that extended well beyond that of a political rally: therefore, in view of the risk of hate speech being spread even more widely, it would be particularly dangerous not to regulate its dissemination on Facebook. They took the view that the applicant’s Facebook account was more akin to a large portal run for professional and commercial purposes than other types of Internet fora, as defined in Delfi AS v. Estonia ([GC], no. 64569/09, ECHR 2015). In that context, the applicant had had only one obligation: to delete unlawful posts promptly after becoming aware of them. No regulation required the automatic filtering of comments and there was no practical possibility of prior content moderation on Facebook. They concluded that the responsibility contemplated by Article 10 § 2 of the Convention should lead producers, in particular when they were candidates for election or elected officials, to open a forum for discussion only if they were able to moderate comments to a minimum degree. 107. Moreover, the Government acknowledged that section 93-3 of Law no. 82-652 of 29 July 1982 did not specify the conditions in which the publication director or producer was deemed to have actual knowledge of the comments, unlike hosts under the provisions of Law no. 2004-575 of 21 June 2004, which laid down rules for the reporting of illegal content. According to the case-law of a number of courts of first instance, the need for prompt deletion required a very rapid reaction, and the Court of Cassation had stated that prior knowledge of the remarks had to be established. https://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/ECHR/2023/418.html 50/100