Court says FB should have removed video (2)

(ANSA) - Caserta, November 4 - 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.