When a platform like Very Leak disseminates personal data obtained without authorization, French and European law clearly distinguishes the responsibility of the one who stores the content from that of the person who uploads or views it. This distinction is based on precise legal qualifications, and each actor faces different consequences depending on their level of involvement.
Abusive reporting of content on Very Leak: who bears the legal risk
Competitors extensively discuss the removal of illegal content after notification. One angle remains absent: the responsibility of someone who reports content in bad faith to obtain its removal.
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The notice and takedown mechanism requires the host to promptly remove content reported as illegal. The DSA (Digital Services Act) has structured this procedure by requiring motivated, timestamped notifications that precisely identify the targeted content. The host who complies with a valid notification is generally exempt from any liability regarding the removed content.
The question shifts when the notification is unfounded. A member who abusively reports lawful content to silence another user or to obtain the removal of embarrassing data exposes themselves. The bad faith notifier may incur civil liability, or even criminal liability if the report constitutes slanderous denunciation. To delve deeper into the responsibilities of hosts in relation to Very Leak, the distinction between legitimate notification and the instrumentalization of the removal mechanism remains a central point.
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The host is not entirely relieved of any obligation in this scenario. If they remove lawful content without minimal verification and this removal causes harm to the content holder, their liability may be sought. The DSA also stipulates that platforms must justify their removal decisions and provide recourse to the user whose content has been deleted.
Active role of the Very Leak platform: loss of host status
The regime of reduced liability for hosts is based on a simple principle: one who passively stores content on behalf of third parties is not responsible for its illegal nature, provided they did not have actual knowledge of it.
This protective regime disappears as soon as the platform plays an active role. The CJEU has clarified this criterion several times: organizing, promoting, indexing, or recommending content in a targeted manner can requalify the host as a publisher. In this case, the platform is directly liable for the illegal nature of the data it promotes.
For a platform like Very Leak, the question arises acutely. If the site merely stores files uploaded by its members, the host status may hold. However, if the platform categorizes leaks, offers an internal search engine, or highlights certain content, the criterion of active role can shift its legal status.
The practical consequences are significant. A passive host must remove content after a valid notification. A de facto publisher can be directly prosecuted, including for complicity in the concealment of stolen data, without prior notification being necessary.
Retention of traceability data by hosts
The LCEN requires hosts to retain the identification data of contributors. This obligation does not pertain to the content itself, but to the technical information that allows tracing back to the author of a publication: IP address, connection timestamp, account identifiers.
This traceability serves two distinct purposes:
- To allow judicial authorities to identify a member who has uploaded stolen personal data, as part of a requisition or a judicial commission
- To provide the victim of a leak with the necessary elements to initiate civil action against the author of the dissemination
- To document the good faith of the host in case of litigation, by proving that it cooperated with legitimate requests for removal and identification
The GDPR regulates this retention. The traceability data are themselves personal data, subject to the principle of minimization and a limited retention period. The host must reconcile its obligation to retain with the prohibition on storing data beyond what is necessary.
Traceability and hosts located outside the EU
When the host is established outside the European Union, fulfilling these obligations becomes more complex. The DSA applies as soon as the service targets European users, regardless of the place of establishment. The platform must then designate a legal representative in the EU, failing which national authorities may take blocking measures.
Criminal liability of members who disseminate or view data on Very Leak
French criminal law distinguishes several levels of involvement for users of a data leak platform:
- Uploading stolen personal data constitutes concealment, liable to prosecution even if the member did not participate in the initial intrusion
- Disseminating personal data without consent falls under the provisions related to personal data protection, with specific sanctions provided by the Penal Code
- Simple consultation, on the other hand, is not in itself constitutive of an offense in the majority of cases, unless accompanied by downloading or reusing the data
- Abusive reporting of lawful content to obtain its removal may characterize slanderous denunciation or abuse of rights
The boundary between passive consultation and active participation in dissemination remains a recurring point of contention. A member who shares a link to data published on Very Leak, even on a third-party social network, may be considered a disseminator in the criminal sense.
The legal framework applicable to Very Leak is based on a qualification mechanism: each actor’s responsibility is determined by what they actually do, not by what they claim to be. A host that organizes content loses its protection. A member who merely reads does not face the same risks as one who redistributes.
Anyone who instrumentalizes the reporting mechanism to harm others exposes themselves to prosecutions that recent European law has made easier to initiate.