Factsheet on Content Moderation and Freedom of Expression

Prepared by Erik Tuchtfeld, Head of the humanet3 research group, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law

This Factsheet complements our Special Collection paper Case law on content moderation and freedom of expression. It contains a selection of the most important decisions by national courts on content moderation. Content moderation is understood here in a broad sense: it does not only refer to the (non-) removal of content by intermediaries, such as social media platforms, but also includes moderation measures taken by public officials who administer social media pages, and cases in which governments try to force a social media platform to moderate in a specific manner. Just like the Collection, this Factsheet is structured taking into consideration the nature of the parties involved (user v. intermediary, user v. public official, state v. intermediary), and the content of the claim (removal or reinstatement of content). Within every section, key arguments or conclusions were highlighted for each case. For more detailed information about them, please refer to the corresponding footnote or online case analysis.