Notice and removal: the procedure

Draft for the media lawyer's review before the second owner publishes; research, not legal advice.

Every stock on this site is published by its owner under the owner's own legal notice. The hub hosts it, renders it and shows neutral signals; it pre-checks nothing and adopts nothing. When someone holds that a card should not stand, the way is a notice, and the answer is a procedure with a hearing, a decision with reasons, and, where the card goes, a tombstone that stays at its address.

1. The notice

The notice form on the hub takes the exact location of the card, an explanation of why it should not stand, the notifier's name and e-mail, and a good-faith statement (Digital Services Act, article 16). It opens a case in the state received.

2. Forwarding and the hearing

The operator forwards the notice to the owner of the stock with a deadline, seven days by default (state forwarded). The owner responds in the account (state hearing). No decision is taken before the deadline has passed or the owner has responded: the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH VI ZR 93/10, 16 December 2011) asks the host to hear the author before removing.

3. The decision with reasons

The operator decides removal or keep with a statement of reasons that names the ground, the facts, the decision and the remedy (article 17). Both sides receive the statement by e-mail. A decision without reasons is refused by the system.

4. The tombstone

Nothing published is deleted. A removal leaves a tombstone at the card's address: removed on notice, the date, the ground. It appears in an off-cycle edition marked as such, and on that edition's changed page.

5. Right of reply

The right of reply under § 20 of the German Interstate Media Treaty (MStV) runs against the stock's owner, who is named in the legal notice, and is a separate instrument from a notice.