Yahoo – AFP,
Carsten HAUPTMEIER, February 6, 2017
 |
| Syrian refugee Anas Modamani (left) is accusing Facebook of helping to spread defamatory fake news over a 2015 selfie that he took with Chancellor Angela Merkel (AFP Photo/Karl-Josef Hildenbrand) |
Wuerzburg
(Germany) (AFP) - A Syrian refugee whose selfie with German Chancellor Angela
Merkel has been repeatedly manipulated to link him to violent jihad, took
Facebook to court Monday for spreading defamatory fake news.
Anas
Modamani, 19, says the US social media giant has failed to take down doctored
images and posts that have falsely linked him to, among other things, deadly
Islamist attacks in Brussels and Berlin last year.
He has
asked a court in the southern city of Wuerzburg for an injunction against
Facebook Ireland Limited, the group's European subsidiary, requiring it to take
down posts linking him to terrorism or criminal offences.
That
includes a recent posting which wrongfully claims Modamani was among a group of
Berlin juvenile delinquents who tried to set fire to a homeless man in a case
that sparked public outrage last Christmas.
Modamani is
being represented by German lawyer Chan-jo Jun, who has already launched
separate criminal complaints against Facebook for inciting hatred.
Jun argues
that Facebook acts as "a content provider, a journalistic medium, which
through its guidelines, algorithms and journalist-bots influences which content
people see and how".
Online
fury
"Facebook
must finally follow German law... to remove illegal content," he said
ahead of Monday's hearing, claiming that the company's own community standards
did not prevent defamatory and insulting statements.
Modamani
arrived in Germany in 2015, along with tens of thousands of other Syrians.
When Merkel
visited his Berlin refugee shelter in September that year, he took two selfie
images with her in jubilant scenes also captured by a news agency photographer.
Since then,
those images have been manipulated and used in different contexts countless
times, as right-wing fury has flared online against Merkel's liberal stance on
refugees.
Trolls have
cut and pasted Modamani's picture into wanted posters and on fake news reports,
typically alleging that the refugee made famous by the Merkel selfie had turned
out to be a terrorist.
"The
main motivation of Anas Modamani is that it stops," Jun has told AFP,
adding that his client, who is now taking German language courses and working
in a fast food restaurant, "dreams of studying in Germany".
 |
Facebook
says it will introduce new measures to take down "unambiguously wrong
reports" being shared by its users (AFP Photo/KAREN BLEIER)
|
Fake news
Publicising
the case has brought much attention to Modamani and already helped clear his
name, Jun said.
A Facebook
spokesman told AFP: "We are sorry to hear about Mr. Modamani's concerns
with the way some people have used his image.
"We
are committed to meeting our obligations under German law in relation to
content which is shared by people on our platform.
"We
have already quickly disabled access to content that has been accurately
reported to us by Mr. Modamani's legal representatives, so we do not believe
that legal action here is necessary or that it is the most effective way to
resolve the situation."
Facebook
has faced heavy criticism in Germany for fake news and hate speech spread by
its users, leading the company to promise corrective steps on both fronts.
The company
and other web giants pledged in December 2015 to examine and remove within 24
hours any hateful comments that were spreading online in Germany, in particular
over the mass influx of 890,000 migrants that year.
Jun last
year launched legal action against Facebook in Munich, accusing its executives
of condoning incitement of hate and violence, and of failing to remove illegal
content despite being notified.
Justice
Minister Heiko Maas, who has been negotiating with social network chiefs, has
also warned that Facebook and others could be punished if they do not comply
with German law.
Last
October, a senior leader of Merkel's centre-right party, Volker Kauder, warned
social networks that Germany could introduce fines for illegal content that is
not removed within a week, with a suggested penalty of 50,000 euros ($55,000)
per post.
Facebook
announced in mid-January that it would introduce new measures to take down
"unambiguously wrong reports" being shared on the social media
platform.
The company
said it would offer a simpler reporting process for users to flag suspected
fake news, display warnings next to statements identified as false by
independent fact-checking organisations, and cut off advertising revenue to
fake news sites.
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