Conclusion

The impact of the Sanchez judgment could be serious for individuals who are prominent on social media, who may find themselves liable for comments made by third parties posted on their online accounts. Those involved in political campaigning and, possibly, day to day political activity, will be required to moderate their social media accounts to avoid criminal sanction for comments made by other people. Based on the ECtHR’s reasoning the same concerns might apply to other high-profile activists. This ties in with a key concern that imposing liability on social media users for third party content would be more likely to expose them to coordinated attack on forums or pages they administer in order to trigger their liability. This judgment makes that prospect more likely. Users might decide instead to prevent any comments being posted on their social media accounts.