A 14-year-old Northern Ireland girl, whose identity is not revealed, is reportedly suing Facebook and the man suspected of sharing naked pictures of her on a so-called Facebook page named ‘Shame.’
The victim’s lawyer claims that the suspect blackmailed her and published the picture as an act of revenge on the said page, as reported by the Mirror, UK. The nude photo was being republished multiple times between November 2014 and January 2016.
The counsel for the teenager compared the publishing of the photo equal to ‘child abuse’ and that ‘Facebook had the power to block any republication by using a DNA process to identify the image’. The girl is now seeking damages for misuse of private information, negligence and breach of the Data Protection Act.
The social media giant had attempted at fighting off the lawsuit, and however, lost its bid to stop the judge from allowing the case to move forward. Facebook reportedly claims that they did take the picture down as soon as they were alerted about it. However, the girl’s lawyer argued that the formers’ system of protection wasn’t satisfactory enough as the picture was shared multiple times despite the ‘claimed’ attempts.
The court heard that uploading a ‘naked photo’ of a minor should have been a ‘red-line’ issue for the Facebook and if the image was blocked in time, all subsequent publications would have been avoided.
‘Barristers for Facebook mounted an application to have the case dismissed at a preliminary stage. They relied on a European directive, claiming it provides protection from having to monitor a vast amount of online material for what is posted on one page. It was also stressed that the social network always responds to any reported breaches brought to its attention,’ Mirror further reported. The case will now advance to full trial at a later date.
