General monitoring of third-party content:compatible with freedom of expression?

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has recently affirmed its earlier Delfi AS v Estonia decision of 2013, in which the court rejected the complaint of a news portal that was exposed to civil liability before notification in respect of third-party comments made on its website under one of the news items. The Grand Chamber has now upheld the ruling, according to which the imposition of a general obligation to control third-party content can in some circumstances constitute a justified interference with the intermediary's freedom of expression.