Woman sues Facebook 10 cents for each user over Photoshopped images

31 Jul 2014

A woman from Texas has taken Facebook to court for damages of US$123m over Photoshopped images of her that appeared on the social network.

According to Ars Technica, the reason Meryem Ali has decided to sue for this much is because she is asking Facebook to pay 10c for every one of its users, which currently equates to 1.23bn.

The defendant also claims a former friend used her headshot to make a fraudulent profile of her and began messaging people while also seeing her face “attached to false, phony, naked body shots, and at least one pose where there is plaintiff in a graphic pornographic-like photo.”

Ali’s issue with Facebook, as laid out in the lawsuit, is more to do with the fact that despite the page and photos being found by her in December 2013 and notifying Facebook’s team, they didn’t make an effort to remove them until a few months later in mid-February.

In her opinion, she sees the lawsuit as also playing a part in exposing “the frailties and failures of the falsely advertised and falsely promoted privacy mechanisms”.

Given Facebook’s nature with these events, the company has yet to discuss any official dealings with Ali or her lawyer but it is believed she may have a case against her former friend who posted the fake profile page.

Facebook screen image via Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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