Delfi revisited: the MTE-Index.hu v. Hungary case

On 2 February 2016, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered a judgement on Magyar Tartalomszolgáltatók Egyesülete and Index.hu Zrt v. Hungary (MTE and Index.hu). The case concerned the liability of online intermediaries for user comments. Using the criteria established in the Delfi AS case of 16 June 2015, the Court found that there had been a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to freedom of expression. Unlike in Delfi AS, the Court decided that the incriminated comments in this case did not amount to hate speech or incitement to violence. Following on from this recent blogpost which summarises the two cases, Pieter-Jan Ombelet and Aleksandra Kuczerawy from KU Leuven analyse the criteria that were taken into account by the ECtHR in both cases, and highlight some of the implications of the recent judgement.