The German Constitutional Court decided on Wednesday, February 2, that Facebook had to provide justice with the contact details of people who published, in particular, under a pseudonym, offensive remarks on the platform’s site. In this case, it is a political leader violently attacked on the Net who had seized the highest court of his country.
With our correspondent in Berlin, Pascal Thibault
“ Sick ” Where ” brain amputee “. For the Berlin Court of Appeal, such qualifiers published on the Net were exaggerated and showed a lack of respect for the victim. But the interested party, the former minister and ecologist deputy Renate Künast, had, as a public person, to do with it. The court therefore decided that the elected official could not obtain that Facebook provide the contact details of all the people who had insulted her.
The decision had been strongly criticized and the elected, a lawyer by training, had seized the Constitutional Court. She agreed with the plaintiff. Renate Künast will therefore be able to obtain that Facebook provide the data of the 22 people who had insulted her on the social network to justice so that legal proceedings can be brought against her.
Public figures targeted online
Renate Künast welcomed the decision of the Constitutional Court and spoke ” good day for democracy “. ” I did not launch this procedure for me but so that the courts and the prosecution understand that the rights of public persons attacked on the net must be protected “, she said.
Facebook, like other platforms, only provides user data to the courts under duress. A new law imposes it on them since February 1.
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