A Naples civil court ruled
Friday that a hardcore video featuring a woman who committed
suicide after it was uploaded to social media without her
consent, should have been removed from Facebook along with all
links and information about the victim, with or without a court
order.
The Naples court thus upheld an appeal by the victim's
mother, Teresa Giglio, and nixed a claim by Facebook Ireland.
Victim Tiziana Cantone, 31, killed herself on September 13
this year in the town of Mugnano, near the southern port city of
Naples, following a legal battle to remove explicit videos from
the Internet.
Her Facebook page was inundated with insulting comments
after the videos she had originally shared on Whatsapp with a
former boyfriend went viral on social media for months.
Cantone's lawyer Roberta Foglia Manzillo had filed a
petition against Facebook Ireland, Google, Yahoo Italy and
Youtube, obtaining a court order in early September
to immediately remove the explicit content portraying Cantone.
Cantone had decided to leave her hometown and move to
Tuscany earlier this year, and had also reportedly started
bureaucratic procedures to change her identity.
On Friday, the Naples civil court however partially upheld
a claim by Facebook Ireland, that the hosting provider has no
obligation to preemptively check user-uploaded content.
Lawyer Andrea Orefice, who represents the victim's mother,
called it a balanced sentence.
"It introduces the principle... (that) a hosting provider
must remove illicit content reported by users - which is what
happened in Tiziana's case. (Social media companies) must not
wait for orders from privacy watchdogs or a judge in order to do
so," Orefice said.
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