Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek (born 28 February 1969 as Eva Glawischnig) is an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n politician of the

Austrian Green Party Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

, and its federal spokeswoman from 2008 until 2017. She was the plaintiff in the landmark case Eva Glawishnig-Piesczek v. Facebook Ireland, in which she sued

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

for

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

to compel the social media company to globally censor the "defamatory and all equivalent" posts.

Background

Born in

Villach Villach (; sl, Beljak; it, Villaco; fur, Vilac) is the seventh-largest city in Austria and the second-largest in the federal state of Carinthia. It is an important traffic junction for southern Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the po ...

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...

, Glawischnig attended '' gymnasium'' in

Spittal an der Drau Spittal an der Drau is a town in the western part of the Austrian federal state of Carinthia. It is the administrative centre of Spittal an der Drau District, Austria's second largest district (''Bezirk'') by area. Geography The town is located o ...

and took her ''

Matura or its translated terms (''Mature'', ''Matur'', , , , , , ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech ...

'' exams there. She then studied

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

at the

University of Graz The University of Graz (german: link=no, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, ), located in Graz, Austria, is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria. History The unive ...

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

, graduating in 1993 (Magistra) and 1999 (doctorate) respectively. Glawischnig worked as a legal adviser for from 1992 until 1996. In that year she embarked on a career in regional politics for the Green Party of

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, later moving on to the federal level. She has been a member of the

National Council of Austria The National Council (german: Nationalrat) is one of the two houses of the Austrian Parliament and is frequently referred to as the lower house. The Politics of Austria, constitution endows the National Council with far more power than the Federa ...

(''Nationalrat'') since 1999 and became vice-chairperson of the Austrian Green Party in 2002. Glawischnig has been a persistent critic of the Austrian government headed by

Wolfgang Schüssel Wolfgang Schüssel (; born 7 June 1945) is an Austrian People's Party politician. He was Chancellor of Austria for two consecutive terms from February 2000 to January 2007. While being recognised as a rare example of an active reformer in conte ...

. On 30 October 2006 she became Third Speaker of the Austrian Parliament, as the first representative of the Greens in this office. On 3 October 2008, Glawischnig became the Greens' federal spokeswoman following

Alexander Van der Bellen Alexander Van der Bellen (; born 18 January 1944) is the current president of Austria. He previously served as a professor of economics at the University of Vienna, and after joining politics, as the spokesman of the Austrian Green Party. ...

's resignation. On 18 May 2017, she resigned as the Greens' federal spokeswoman and retired from politics, citing personal reasons. She has been working for an international gambling company Novomatic since 2018.

Lawsuit against Facebook

In 2016, Glawischnig requested Facebook to remove a post criticizing her in sharp terms. After Facebook failed to remove the post, she brought a claim in Vienna court, Eva Glawischnig-Pieszcek v. Facebook Ireland. The case became an important legal question of whether a court in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

could compel a social media company to globally censor a user's posting, even for viewers outside of the EU's jurisdiction. On 3 October 2019 the Court of Justice for the European Union decided that an Austrian court could indeed order the global removal of the offensive posts, and all future posts similar to them that are designed to defame Glawishnig. Supporters of the Court's landmark ruling believe it empowers online users to defend themselves against defamation or other online abuse, while critics have called out the possibility of mass censorship due to the challenging nature of online rule enforcement.

Notes and references

External links

* 1969 births Living people People from Villach Members of the National Council (Austria) 20th-century Austrian women politicians 20th-century Austrian politicians 21st-century Austrian women politicians 21st-century Austrian politicians The Greens – The Green Alternative politicians University of Graz alumni {{Austria-politician-stub