Facebook was given two weeks to comply with a judge ruling on a case that involves a young woman whose video was uploaded at the social networking site without her consent. The company should be able to produce some relevant information about the person who uploaded the video such as the name, email, phone number, date of birth, IP address and the corresponding date and time when the video was posted, seen, and deleted.
The ruling came from a court based in the district of Amsterdam following the lawsuit filed against Facebook by the victim who is known by her first name "Chantal." The 21-year old woman sued Facebook, saying that her life had "turned into hell" since the video was posted.
The video in question was made in 2011 and showed Chantal, who was then a minor, performing a sex act with a boy. While the latter admitted that he made the recording, he denied about uploading it on Facebook.
The video was immediately deleted after it was posted. However, it had also been downloaded a couple of times and had been posted elsewhere.
Facebook said that the person who uploaded the video used a fake account on the site. The company added that they have deleted all information that revolves around the post from its servers which include the video in question.
"The offending account was ultimately deleted before we received any request for user data, so all information about it was removed from our servers in accordance with our terms and applicable law," said Facebook in a statement.
Chantal's lawyer, Thomas van Vught, said that his client did not believe the video had been deleted.
"Facebook records everything: including accepted 'friend' requests with dates and times," said the lawyer.
According to the court ruling, Facebook's claim that the data had already been deleted from its servers and can no longer be traced should be verified as accurate by an independent investigator. It added that the company has a legal obligation to give the information on the culprit because of the latter's illegal action and the seeming inability of getting information from other sources.
"We deeply empathize with the victim's experience and share her desire to keep this kind of nonconsensual imagery off Facebook," the company added.
Photo: Maria Ly I Flickr
