Facebook Pays Undisclosed Damages In Nude Photograph Case

Facebook Legal Settlement

It’s been a rough year for Facebook. It barely seems that the social media site can go a month without some form of negative publicity. The most recent, however, may be one of the catalysts for a big change at the company.

Mark Zuckerberg appears to want to take a significantly greater ‘hands-on’ roll of the company in 2018. Part of this was announced last week by the changing of the news algorithm to focus more on friends and family than businesses. A decision which has seen a significant drop in the share price of the company. Mark Zuckerberg, however, doesn’t care and appears to wish to completely overhaul the website to ensure its long-term survival. This, both from a user base and legal standpoint.

In a report via the Telegraph, however, a new legal case against Facebook may have a massively significant impact on the future.

Nude Photo posted on Facebook group

Facebook has just settled a legal case regarding a 14-year-old girl from Wales in the United Kingdom. The girl had taken the social media site to court after a nude photograph of her was posted to a ‘shame’ page on the social media site which was allegedly obtained by blackmail. Now, obviously overlooking the completely illegal nature of underage imagery, it is believed that the settlement may have a massive impact on the company.

Some legal experts believe that the settlement may open the floodgates. Specifically to instances of pictures being posted of a ‘private nature’ on the social media site. Without, of course, the person’s permission. While Facebook is trialling AI to detect such imagery, it didn’t come soon enough in this instance.

Until this settlement, Facebook had generally followed the procedure of placing all blame on the user who posted the image. With this new case, however, I think the settlement is directly due to the underage factor. The social media site clearly would not want the publication of underage nude photographs advertised too largely. Particularly into the public domain. It does, however, mean that a precedent is now in place in the UK courts. Something that could end up costing Facebook quite dearly.

What do you think? Does Facebook need a major overhaul to survive? Will this case open the doors to more legal action? – Let us know in the comments!