German court to rule in refugee's Facebook lawsuit

A court in southern Germany will rule on a case brought against Facebook by a Syrian refugee who wants 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 in 2015 at the height of the refugee crisis.

The selfies started appearing in anti-migrant Facebook posts following high-profile crimes within Germany that had migrants identified as the perpetrators.

The original posts have since been removed because they breached German privacy laws. But Modamani is seeking an injunction that would force Facebook to actively identify and remove such posts, rather than wait for users to flag them.

The court in Wuerzburg will rule on the case Tuesday.

Explore further: Hounded over Merkel selfie, Syrian refugee sues Facebook