ABSTRACT
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has recognised the impact of the Internet as a communication and information tool, drawing on existing principles in the respective jurisprudence on freedom of expression and the right to a private life and to seek to ensure those rights are respected online as offline. It is an environment in which emergent and actual problems are, however, becoming evident. This contribution considers how existing jurisprudence may be drawn across to the social media context. Questions regarding the conflict between users’ rights raise familiar questions; the position of social media platforms as internet intermediaries, however, lies in an area in which the jurisprudence is not yet mature. The chapter critically assesses the extent to which the ECtHR has fully resolved these tensions, acknowledging that, while the basic principles remain valid in the social media context, with some adjustment for that context, there are specific questions about the analytical tools deployed in relation to the immunity of social media platforms as intermediaries.
