Facebook in legal tangle over revenge porn video

London, June 26: Facebook might have to throw open its servers for third party inspection for some bits of data if it does not comply with a Dutch court's order to voluntarily part with the information.

A court in Amsterdam has ordered Facebook to reveal the identity of the person who posted a revenge porn video on its site earlier this year, The Guardian reported.

The video, which was made in 2011 while the woman and her boyfriend were still minors, was removed from Facebook "shortly afterwards", but can still be found on the internet.

The court's judgment came after a 21-year-old Dutch woman sued Facebook after a video of her performing a sex act on her boyfriend was posted on the site in late January.

The judge gave Facebook two weeks to comply in handing over the suspect's name, email address, mobile phone number, birth date, computer IP address and the date and time the film was posted, viewed and removed.

Facebook said, it no longer had any relevant information after the account was deleted.

Should Facebook not comply, "an independent third party must be appointed to investigate the question whether Facebook has or had the details and compile a report, the court observed.

The Lawyer for the woman told the local media that his client's life had "turned into hell". Her ex-boyfriend denies posting the video, according to local media reports.

He told De Telegraaf newspaper that his client did not believe the relevant data had been deleted.

It was not clear whether Facebook would comply with the court's ruling or appeal, but it stressed the data had been removed from its servers and the company no longer had it.

"The offending account was ultimately deleted before we received any request for user data, so all information about it was removed from our servers in accordance with our terms and applicable law," Facebook said.

"We deeply empathise with the victim's experience and share her desire to keep this kind of non-consensual imagery off Facebook."

IANS