To know more clues in her daughter’s death, Berlin court rejects giving daughter’s Facebook account to mother

YemenExtra

A Berlin court rejected an appeal by the mother of a dead 15-year-old German teen, who was seeking access to her daughter’s private Facebook account.

The court said the right to privacy outweighs the right to inheritance.

The mother wanted to browse her Facebook messaging to search for more clues in her daughter’s death.

In the Facebook case, the mother of a 15-year-old teenager killed by a subway train in Berlin in 2012 demanded access to her daughter’s account, to know whether the girl had committed suicide or was bullied.

The social media platform rejected the claim, however, citing data protection guidelines.

Facebook said the disclosure of chat messages would also affect other users who were in touch with the girl, and the contents must remain private at all times.

In late 2015, a regional court in Berlin had ruled in favor of the mother, saying that the daughter’s user agreement with Facebook now passed to her parents according to German laws on inheritance.

The lower court also noted that the minor’s right to privacy was not protected because she was an underage person, and her parents were in charge of protecting her.

The decision by Berlin’s court of appeal maintained that the person’s right to privacy outweighs the parents’ rights to gain access to the girl’s private correspondence.

People are being told they’re dead on Facebook after a bug managed to modify user profiles, including that of CEO Mark Zuckerberg.