Germany — In a surprising turn of events, a German state data protection agency has threatened Facebook’s billionaire founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg with a €20,000 (£16,000) fine if Facebook does not permit Germans to have anonymous accounts on the social network.
A German state data protection agency has already sent letters to Zuckerberg in California, and also to Dublin-based Facebook Ireland Ltd, reiterating that the current terms of service for Facebook, which require users to provide their identities, violate German law.
According to the data protection commissioner for the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, Thilo Weichert, sternly said: “It is unacceptable that a US portal like Facebook violates German data protection law, unopposed and with no prospect of an end,” said Weichert.
Essentially, under German law, media services, including Facebook, must offer users the choice of using a pseudonym wherever such an option is possible and reasonable.
However, an initial injunction was placed against Facebook in mid-December giving the company two weeks to change its policy. Although the threat prompted Facebook to seek legal protection at an administrative court in Schleswig-Holstein, hence, the site will likely not meet the agency’s demand any time soon.
However, according to the Guardian, data protection analysts said they thought it was unlikely that Facebook would comply with the latest attempt to force the site into line with German law.
“I think it is not very likely Facebook will change its business pattern for one country, or even just one region in Germany,” said Jörg Hladjk, a lawyer specializing in data protection at Hunton & Williams in Brussels. “Just from a business perspective, this does not make a lot of sense.”
A Facebook spokesman said the orders were without merit and a waste of German taxpayers’ money and that the company would fight vigorously.
Besides, the social media humongous is not new to such controversy, the company has found itself entangled in a number of privacy-related disputes in Germany in recent years.
In fact, in 2011, Schleswig-Holstein prohibited local organizations and companies from using Facebook’s ‘like‘ button, claiming it authorized the site to monitor users. The same year, Hamburg’s data protection agency ruled that Facebook’s facial recognition feature violated German privacy laws.
Last but not least, in 2012, a Berlin court ruled against Facebook for how it uses members’ email addresses to solicit new members.