A German court rejected an injunction against Facebook on Tuesday, ruling against a Syrian refugee who had sued the social media giant for failing to remove posts linking him to militant and extremist activity.
While the Wuerzburg district court stated in its preliminary ruling that Anas Modamani, a 19-year-old refugee from Damascus, was the victim of "indisputable defamation" by Facebook users, it ruled that Facebook was "neither a perpetrator nor a participant" in the defamation, as hosting entities are not required to block offensive content under European law.
The offensive posts feature a photograph shows Modamani taking a selfie with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a refugee shelter in the Berlin district of Spandau. The picture was accompanied by captions falsely claiming he was responsible for the Brussels Airport bombing of March 2016 and for an attack in which 6 migrants set a homeless man on fire in Berlin last December.
The court's decision is subject to appeal.