A U.K. high court judge has ordered Facebook to tell the family of a deceased Facebook user exactly who asked the company to delete his account.
Facebook officials said the company was ordered to delete the account, but refused to give the name of the person or persons who made this request, The Times reported.
The Facebook user, Sarajevo resident Mirza Krupalija, died from a heart attack after his 57th birthday in 2016. Just six months later, Facebook deleted his account. Krupalija’s partner Azra Sabados said it couldn’t have been his family or friends who gave the order.
Having Krupalija’s Facebook account deleted was like he “died a second time,” Sabados said, according to The Times.
“It’s that feeling, you lose someone you love and you try to hang onto everything, and then something happens and you can’t explain that either and nobody knows, none of the friends, none of the family,” she told the BBC.
“Lots of Mirza’s profile included me and our travels, our photos, music he shared, some for me, some for friends, his profile stated that he was in a relationship with me — they could have dropped me an email to check [before deleting it],” Sabados added.
In a similar case, a German court ruled that parents of a deceased teenager did not have the right to access their child’s Facebook account, The Daily Caller News Foundation reported in 2017. (RELATED: NY Times CEO: Facebook’s Fake News Algorithm Will ‘Damage’ Democracy)
“We empathize with the family and are respectful of their wish,” a Facebook representative said. “We are committed to trying to find solution that helps the family while protecting the privacy of others who might be affected.”
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