Are websites responsible for readers' comments?

The operator of a website, even an unprofessional one, is responsible for readers' comments, even those not anonymous, and therefore risks a conviction for defamation. This is the first ruling issued recently by the Court of Cassation. The victim is Carlo Tavecchio, president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), for a comment published in 2009 on the website Agenziacalcio.it, which has also been blocked due to this incident. The author of the comment, which he posted independently, called Tavecchio a "criminal scoundrel" and a "proven criminal," attaching a criminal record. The operator was acquitted in the first instance, convicted in the second instance, and now the Court of Cassation confirms: he will have to pay Tavecchio €60,000 for "complicity in defamation." The Court of Cassation found complicity because the operator must have known of the comment's existence, since its author had sent him an email containing Tavecchio's criminal record. The defendant, however, claims that he only learned of the defamatory comment when the police notified him of the seizure of the site.

The ruling is also striking because case law until now seemed to be moving differently: the European Court of Justice holds operators not liable even for anonymous comments. Last November, Massimiliano Tonelli, founder of the Cartellopoli website (about the degradation of Rome), was acquitted on appeal. In the first instance, he had been sentenced to nine months in prison for incitement to crime regarding some anonymous comments. The previous interpretation, which had led to the conviction of the operator of Nuovocadore.it in 2014, seemed to have vanished. However, now the Court of Cassation has weighed in on the merits for the first time and issued a ruling. Website operators are on notice. But not only them, but all users. Considering that anyone on the web can manage a website or other web space, with their (sometimes dangerous) comments.