Facebook Inc. must completely delete posts that could be considered hate speech rather than simply blocking or hiding them from certain regions, an Austrian court has ruled.

Austria’s Green Party filed the case against Facebook in response to a number of derogatory posts made against party leader Eva Glawischnig. The posts, which were made by a user under a fake name, referred to Glawischnig as “miese Volksverräterin” and “korrupten Trampel,” which roughly mean “lousy traitor” and “corrupt bumpkin,” respectively.

In addition to the name calling, the same Facebook profile also spread false information about Alexander van der Bellen during his recent run for president of Austria, which he ultimately won. The posts claimed that van der Bellen had been diagnosed with cancer, and as a result, Van der Bellen was forced to publish his own health records to prove that the accusations were false.

In December, the Austrian court placed a preliminary injunction on Facebook, forcing the social network to block the posts made against Glawischnig and van der Bellen, which until that point had remained visible on the site. “The court held the opinion that the spreading of untrue statements can never be covered by freedom of speech,” court spokesman Alexander Schmidt said at the time.

As in previous European court battles, Facebook once again argued that it is governed by Irish law since that is the location of its European headquarters, but the Austrian court rejected this claim and said that Facebook must obey local law regardless of which country it calls home.

“Facebook must put up with the accusation that it is the world’s biggest platform for hate and that it is doing nothing against this,” said Green parliamentarian Dieter Brosz.

The Austrian court said today that Facebook, whose Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) has recently announced initiatives to prevent hate speech and “fake news,” must delete hate speech from its platform worldwide, not only in the regions that have requested the content to be removed. The court also said that Facebook must prevent deleted content from being reposted verbatim, but the court also noted that Facebook could not be expected to continuously monitor all posts to ensure that similar content is not posted.

The Austrian court’s ruling echoes a similar movement in Germany, whose Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection wants to impose a $53 million fine on social media companies that fail to remove illegal content quickly.

“We have clear rules against hate speech and work hard to keep it off our platform,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement at the time. “We are committed to working with the government and our partners to address this societal issue.”

Photo: Facebook