A Syrian migrant living in Germany is suing Facebook after fake news stories were posted suggested he was a terrorist.
Anas Modamani, who is 19 years old, came to Germany with around a million other migrants as part of Angela Merkel’s controversial open-door policy.
He met the German Chancellor in September 2015 at the camp where he was staying, and asked her for a selfie.
The moment was captured by a photographer (pictured above) – and later found a second life when unscrupulous social media users linked him to various crimes committed by other people.
One suggested he was involved in the Brussels airport bombing, another linked him to the attack on a Berlin Christmas market, while a third suggested he was part of a gang who set fire to a homeless man in the German capital.
After the third mistaken viral post, Modamani found a lawyer, who issued a suit against Facebook claiming that allowing the stories to be posted amounts to slander.
In an interview with the BBC, Modamani’s attorney said: “Facebook is doing a very poor job with fake news.
“But it is especially doing a poor job with illegal fake news.
“Not all fake news is illegal, but where it amounts to slander, as I believe this does, then it should be taken down.”
Facebook has been under increasingly heavy fire for its role in the fake news ecosystem, particularly since the US election.
There are particular worries in Germany – which is having major votes of its own in 2017.
The German government has demanded action from the social network, threatening to levy a €500,000 ($535,000) fine on Facebook for every day it fails to remove a story flagged as false.
In the last week, Facebook announced that it was beginning tests on a fake news filter system for its German site.
