Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Facebook Inc. Fined In Germany


The social media network has managed to do well in a lot of countries but it should understand that it can't function by its own ways everywhere.
Facebook Inc. might be the social media giant with incredible user growth, financials as well as popularity but on the legal side the networking website has been facing trouble in a number of countries. After have legal issues in India, Facebook has issued a fine of $109,330 (€100,000) as it failed to comply with the terms and condition of user content.
On 9 December, 2016 the social media network was criticized by the regional court of Berlin in Germany regarding the terms that involve German users. As per the clause the users were “grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any intellectual property (IP) content that you post on or in connection with Facebook.”
However, the regional court completely disagreed to this clause and asked the social networking site to change it as the clause gives rights to the company to use the content of the German users or whatever they post on the network. Despite the fact that the court has initially requested the organization to remove that clause from the terms, it failed to comply with it and hence was fined because of that negligibility. Additionally, it has decided to remove that specific clause from its terms and condition and has also agreed to pay the fine.
Berlin’s regional court stated during the latest sentence that a similar problem had been faced by the social website back in 2012 as well where it was requested to alter a clause which seemed to be violating the rights of the consumer. However, after an appeal to the court this clause was removed in 2014 which included the “royalty-free” and “in connection with” terms from it from the users residing in Germany.
This is not the first complaint that has been received against in the region; there have been a number of complaints against the social media network in the European Union countries. These countries are specifically concerned about the user’s data as well as their privacy. They value national security as well as the privacy of their citizens due to which they are keeping a close eye on the US internet along with such tech giants.
Furthermore, the most recent legal problem that the tech giant faced was in India with its Free Basics offer. As per the offer, Mark Zuckerberg was going to provide free internet all across India to people who did not have access to it; evidently it was not only for the benefit of the people on the country but also the company itself. Increased accessibility of internet would mean an increase in Facebook users, so the company was not just doing the people of India a favor. However, this offer was negated by the Indian Regulatory as they stated that it was of no good for the people and gave an unfair edge to the company.
The company did not stop at that, there were a number of promotional campaigns but despite of all the efforts that social media company failed to provide the service; mainly because it violated the net neutrality laws of the country. 

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