ISPs not liable for hate material

An amendment to the e-commerce directive means that internet service providers (ISPs) will not be held liable for religion- or sexuality-related hate speech transmitted over their networks.

The e-commerce directive protects ISPs from liability for material that they neither create nor monitor but simply store or pass on to users of their service.

The way these regulations are implemented in the UK mean the exemptions for ISPs only cover legislation passed before the 30 July 2002.

However, in 2008 the Government extended the offence of stirring up hatred on the grounds of religion contained in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act to include stirring up of hatred on the grounds of someone’s sexuality.

This potentially left ISPs vulnerable and the scope was there to hold them liable for this content if transmitted over their networks.

Although the Government said in practice it was “very unlikely” ISPs would be held liable for the offences because of the requirement for intent, to clarify the position it has amended the e-commerce regulations.

A representative for the Internet Services Providers' Association (ISPA) told Computeractive that: ”ISPA welcomes the legal clarity that this provided but the Government should ‘future proof’ the regulations.”

“ISPA has repeatedly requested that the UK Regulations be amended to have a 'prospective effect'. Without this the e-commerce regulations only apply to UK legislation passed before 30 July 2002 and do not automatically apply to new laws, presenting ISPs with real risk of liability for offences each time a new piece of legislation is passed.

"This is another such case of where an amendment to the regulations has been required following a period of uncertainty for ISPs."