29/09/2023, 12:35 SANCHEZ v. FRANCE - 45581/15 (Judgment : No Article 10 - Freedom of expression-{general} : Grand Chamber) [2023] ECHR 418 (1… the applicant’s initial post, as shown in particular by the systematic references to F.P., the applicant’s political opponent, in the messages posted both by S.B. and by L.R. For the Court this was not, therefore, simply a discussion thread but clearly a form of ongoing dialogue representing a coherent whole and it was reasonable for the domestic authorities to apprehend it as such. 197. It may also be inferred from the above, in the Court’s view, that the deletion of S.B.’s remarks by their author within twenty-four hours after they were posted does not suffice to negate the applicant’s liability in respect of Leila T., who joined the criminal proceedings as a civil party. The Court notes in this connection that, in its judgment of 18 October 2013, the Nîmes Court of Appeal upheld the judgment of the Criminal Court as to its civil provisions in favour of Leila T., and in addition to the award of EUR 1,000 at first instance for non-pecuniary damage it awarded the same amount for the costs she had incurred in the appeal proceedings. Whilst it is true that S.B. promptly deleted his own comment, the only one referring directly to Leila T., that deletion took place only after further comments had been posted by L.R. which, echoing the remarks of S.B., contributed to and thus pursued the same discourse. The applicant’s initial post not only started a dialogue, as the Court has already noted, but also had repercussions which went beyond that post on account of the very nature of social networks on the Internet (see paragraphs 161 et seq. above). Therefore, this form of ongoing dialogue, forming a coherent whole (see paragraph 196 above) was such as to justify the fact that the applicant was ordered to pay certain sums to Leila T., as civil party, even though S.B.’s comment, in response to his initial post, had been deleted. Accordingly, having regard to the foregoing, the Court finds that the Nîmes Court of Appeal was entitled to conclude, by reasoning that was neither arbitrary nor manifestly unreasonable, that the deletion of S.B.’s message had therefore no longer been capable of reversing the consequences for the civil party Leila T. It is emphasised that the applicant’s liability, both criminal and civil, was not engaged on account of any specific comment taken in isolation. 198. The Court reiterates, on this point, that its task, in exercising its supervisory jurisdiction, is not to take the place of the competent national authorities, which moreover enjoy a margin of appreciation, to which the preamble to the Convention now refers expressly, following the entry into force of Protocol No. 15 on 1 August 2021, but rather to review the compatibility with Article 10 of the decisions they have delivered pursuant to their power of appreciation, and that involves assessing the impugned interference in the light of all the circumstances of the case. https://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/ECHR/2023/418.html 75/100