Fake News Forces Syrian Refugee to Take Facebook to Court

The term “fake news” has become very popular since Donald Trump labeled one of the most credible news sites as “fake news” to clear his name of a few rumors. Since then, Trump supporters have used the term to describe any credible news source that directly opposes the views of their leader. However, as more people continue to explore politics, it’s become hard for them to differentiate between what is real and fake, outside of the well-known credible news organizations. This has led to a lawsuit for a very popular social media site for unintentionally spreading “fake news.”

Back in the summer of 2015, German politician Angela Merkel took a short trip to a shelter in Berlin where Syrian refugee, Anas Modamani, lived. When the politician arrived for her visit, the refugee pulled out his mobile phone, snapping a selfie with the Merkel, the current German chancellor.

The selfie went viral, CNN reports. It was featured on several newspapers nationwide, front pages, and televised on a few different media outlets, as it showed the chancellor in a different light. Unfortunately, the photo and its recognition made a turn for the worst and was soon used to drive fake news, using Modamani’s name and likeness in posts about terrorism.

It all started after the bombings in Brussels last March.

“For the first five months, I thought it was a good luck charm,” Modamani said. “But now I think it’s bad luck.”

“I saw my picture posted… But of course, this was not me!,” Modamani said, after seeing a post that blamed Syrian refugees for the fatal airport bombing. “I thought immediately: What does this mean? What about my future? This is really no joke now. This is serious.”

The post was shared over 200,000 times. After that his face went viral, once again, after a homemade bomb in Ansbach killed a Syrian refugee. Following that incident, Modamani saw his face all over Facebook, after a Tunisian man drove his truck through a crowd in Berlin, with posts saying that he drove the vehicle.

“We kept using the online system to ask Facebook to take down articles,” Modamani’s foster mother said. “But we always got the same reply: ‘This photo is not against their standards.’”

As a result of the defamation, the refugee is seeking a ruling in a German court, requiring Facebook to remove the photo from all fake news posts and to stop it from being used in those fraudulent columns.

“We are committed to meeting our obligation sunder German law in relation to content which is shared by people on our platform. We have already quickly disabled access to content that has been accurately reported to us by Modamani’s legal representatives, so we do not believe that legal action here is necessary or that it is the most effective way to resolve the situation,” Facebook said in a statement.

However, Modamani and his foster mother, Anke Meeuw, are willing to fight for their old life back.

The case will be heard on Monday in Germany.