Duty to monitor sites to be debated in court

An important dispute over whether internet hosting sites have immunity from defamation litigation is to be thrashed out before the Supreme Court.

The issue has a significance “well beyond” the case where it is raised — that of student Eoin McKeogh, who sued over a YouTube video clip falsely accusing him of evading a taxi fare, Michael Howard, counsel for Google and YouTube, told the Supreme Court yesterday.

Rossa Fanning, counsel for Facebook, agreed that the case raises important issues concerning interpretation of the E-Commerce Directive 2000/31/EC, and the Irish regulations implementing that directive.