Can I Force Others To Remove Facebook Photos Of Me?

Now-a-days, most individuals have access to a camera at all times due to the developments of the modern smart phone. With the ever increasing use of social media, it is often the case that many photos of you will end up on the internet for everyone to see. At times these photos may not turn out particularly how you wanted them to and you may wish they were never posted.

Some individuals also prefer to not have any photos of them posted on social media in an attempt to protect their privacy. For example, in cases we have dealt with before children have been adopted and the biological parents are not told where the children are living for the safety of the children – photographs of the children posted on line could well have given away the location of the children. In these scenarios, an individual may ask the individual that posted the image to remove any photo, which has been posted of them. What happens however, when the individual refuses to remove a photo?

Such scenario was considered and decided upon by the Dutch Courts earlier this year.

Can I force others to remove social media photos of me? Recent case law

The case in question involved a Grandmother who had posted photos of her grandchildren on the popular social media platform ‘Facebook’. It is understood that the Grandmother and her Daughter later fell out and following this, the Daughter asked that photos of her children were removed from the Grandmother’s Facebook. The Grandmother refused to remove the photos and the Daughter was left to seek the Court’s authority to enforce the removal.

Upon considering the case, the Court ruled that the Grandmother was to remove the photos immediately. Further to this, for every day that the photos remained on the Grandmother’s Facebook, the Grandmother would be liable to pay a fine of 45 euros. This ruling was made in accordance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation which came into force on the 25^th of May 2018. Whilst this case was decided by the Dutch Courts, the ruling suggests that this regulation can now be extended to processing of data for personal reasons which is a current exemption.

Whilst the EU General Data Protection Rules do not apply to the personal processing of data, the Court in this instance ruled that due to the rules of Facebook, it would apply. Certain provisions on Facebook allow Facebook to use any photos posted on their site and ultimately grants them a right of ownership of such photos. This in turn creates a possibility of all photos posted on the site to be accessed by third parties. On the basis such photos may end up in the hands of a third party, no matter how small the chance was, the Court ruled the exemption of personal use did not apply and therefore the GDPR regulations applied. The Court were therefore able to enforce the removal of the photos. This ruling is expected to apply to other social media sites where photos may be accessed by a third party.

Comment

What is particularly interesting about this case is the approach taken in terms of pursuing the person posting the material rather than Facebook as a company. If Facebook were pursued there would be all sorts of issues regarding which country’s jurisdiction applied to the case. This was avoided in the case as it involved two private individuals that both resided in the same country.

The impact of this ruling is yet to been seen, however it is likely for this case to somewhat open the floodgates for similar claims. With the flexibility of the GDPR regulations, it is expected most cases will be dealt with on an individual basis.

It should be noted that photos posted in a public area by a third party may attract certain protection. It is also worth considering who the publisher is in any potential dispute as it is not uncommon for the individual behind certain social media pages to be unknown.

As a first course of action, it would always be advised that the removal of any photo or media of you is requested from the publisher.