Syrian refugee sues Facebook for allowing use of his selfie with Angela Merkel on fake news

BBC – Syrian refugee Anas Modamani is suing Facebook after a selfie he took with Chancellor Angela Merkel was used in fake news stories.

A court in Wurzburg, Germany, heard opening remarks from lawyers representing both sides.

Mr Modamani’s photo went viral in August 2015 but was later used to falsely link him to terror attacks.

Facebook deleted some of the posts, but lawyers for Mr Modamani claimed that it had still appeared widely.

They argued that Facebook could have done more to prevent people from sharing the selfie.

The image has been used in posts about attacks in Brussels and on a Christmas market in Berlin.

Facebook lawyer Martin Munz countered that, with billions of postings each day, the company would need to employ “a sort of wonder machine” to detect each misuse, according to Bloomberg.

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