Eva Glawischnig, 51, sued Facebook after it refused to remove abusive posts by a user who wrongly referred to her as a “lousy traitor”, a “corrupt tramp” and a member of a “fascist party”.

In the course of the case, a referral was made to the European Court of Justice, which found that worldwide removal of the post would not be contrary to EU law.

Austria’s Supreme Court thereafter dismissed Facebook’s appeal and ruled it must delete the posts that carry the same essential meaning as the original.

Der Standard reported that judges ruled that social media platforms can be compelled to find and delete content when a court determines it is unlawful.

In reaction to last year’s EU court ruling, Facebook said: “This judgment raises critical questions around freedom of expression and the role that internet companies should play in monitoring, interpreting and removing speech that might be illegal in any particular country.

“It undermines the longstanding principle that one country does not have the right to impose its laws on speech on another country. It also opens the door to obligations being imposed on internet companies to proactively monitor content and then interpret if it is ‘equivalent’ to content that has been found to be illegal.”