Facebook may be forced to delete messages anywhere in the world to protect EU users from hate content, the European Court of Justice said this week.

European courts can force platforms (such as Facebook) to search for and delete such content once it has been alerted, European judges said. Courts can also order global abolition if they take international law into account when issuing edicts, the judges said.

“Today’s decision essentially allows a country or region to decide what Internet users around the world can say and what information they can access,” said Victoria de Posson, a European member of the Computer & Communications Industry Association.