After a 15-year-old girl was killed by a subway train in Berlin in 2012, the girl’s mother has been searching for clues as to whether her daughter’s death was a suicide. Turning to her Facebook page seemed like a logical place to start, seeing as many use the platform to offer a glimpse into their personal mindset, but gaining such access wasn’t quite so easy. Instead it had led to a long and grueling battle in the courts, only to now find herself locked from the page’s secrets indefinitely.
Five year’s after the tragic events, a Berlin court issued its final verdict on the case, siding with Facebook’s decision to not handover access. This comes after an earlier 2015 ruling that sided with the mother on the grounds that German inheritance laws would apply to handing over ‘digital contracts’. Not to mention the girl had a limited right to privacy as a minor.
Despite the earlier decision, the appeals court on Wednesday reversed the win, leaving the mother with no access to what could have explained her daughter’s death on the network.
