The Commission indicated on Tuesday that this is the first case in which the institution received a “Meta” decision regarding an official request to remove a “Facebook” account due to systemic copyright infringements. However, the account in question was not removed.
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Through the “Meta Official Requests” portal, the Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania (LRTK) requested the removal of a “Facebook” account which, according to the Commission, systematically violated copyrights and published content not compliant with Lithuanian legislation.
In its request, LRTK stated that the account regularly posted fragments of Lithuanian broadcasters TV3, LRT, and LNK television programs as reels without the permission of copyright holders.
The request also noted that some posts contained texts inciting hatred against migrants and Muslims, and in one of the cases, misleading information was spread about the return of children to parents in the event of war or air danger.
According to the Commission, the account was used systematically without permission to publish copyrighted content from Lithuanian broadcasters, as well as to distribute hate-inciting and misleading content.
In response to LRTK’s request, “Meta” stated that it “is not clear that all reported content is illegal or violates Facebook Community Standards or Instagram Community Guidelines.”
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However, the company informed that it removed or restricted access to content that, in its assessment, violated applicable requirements.
According to LRTK Chairman Mantas Martišius, this case showed that official reports to platforms can yield concrete results.
“However, removing individual posts is not enough if the account continues to be used to publish the same type of content. Therefore, we will seek for platforms to evaluate not only individual posts but also accounts whose activity is based on systemic legal violations,” he was quoted as saying in the statement.
LRTK claims it will seek for “Meta” to reassess the decision not to remove the entire account.
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