Liability for third-party content addresses the extent to which a website operator is answerable for what users write on it – reviews, comments, forum posts or listings. The basic rule is that the service provider is not liable for third-party content as long as it is unaware of its unlawfulness. From the moment it learns of it, for example through a notification from the affected person, it must act without undue delay and remove the content or disable access to it, otherwise it assumes liability. For companies, this results in a practical obligation to have a functioning way of reporting problematic content and someone who handles the reports. The same logic applies to comments on company profiles on social media.
See also: Comment moderation, Online review management, Digital Services Act (DSA).
