BERLIN (AP) — A court in southern Germany has dismissed a case brought against Facebook by a Syrian refugee who wanted the company to seek and delete posts falsely linking him to crimes committed by migrants.
Anas Modamani was one of several asylum-seekers who took a selfie with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015. These started appearing in Facebook posts following high-profile crimes in Germany where migrants were identified as the perpetrators.
Modamani wanted an injunction forcing Facebook to actively identify and remove such posts, rather than wait for users to flag them.
German news agency dpa reports the court in Wuerzbuerg ruled Tuesday that Facebook hadn’t made the slanderous posts its own and therefore couldn’t be forced to abide by a cease and desist order.
