Cricket fan files case against Facebook for taking down her account after BCCI's complaint

A Chandigarh based Cricket fan has filed a suit against Facebook for deactivating her accounts. Apparently, Monica Shail violated the media rights of BCCI by posting a match clip of India vs Sri Lanka held on December 17 last year in Mohali. The clip involved her being spotted among the spectators.

Facebook, after receiving a formal complaint from the BCCI, deleted the video posted by Monica on her account and blocked her profile after which she moved to the District Court in a bid to restore her account. Facebook informed Monica of the same in a mail and clarified the reason for deleting the video.

“We removed or disabled access to the following content you posted on Facebook because we received a notice from a third party that the content infringes their copyright(s). Video uploaded on December 14th, 1.29 am PST. Facebook isn’t in a position to adjudicate disputes between third parties.

If you believe this content should not have been removed from Facebook, you can contact the complaining party directly to resolve your issue. Contact information rights owner – Board of Control for Cricket in India,” the part of the mail read according to the Indian Express.

“If an agreement is reached to restore the reported content, please get the complaining party to email us with their consent and include the original reference number. We will not be able to restore this content to Facebook unless we receive explicit notice of consent from the complainant party. Please note that the complaining party is not required to respond to your request. We strongly encourage you to review the content you have posted to Facebook to make sure that you have not posted any other infringing content, as it is our policy to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers when appropriate,” it further read.

Account not restored

Monica was informed that her account was disabled following BCCI’s complaint. In spite of a formal apology, her account wasn’t restored and it forced her to plead the same. Monica runs her business through her Facebook page consisting of over 400 friends and 8500 followers. Her lawyer argued that Facebook had no right to disable her account after removing the content from her profile.

Facebook India in its reply argued that they were nowhere close to a proper party or a body in the dispute and the case against them was meaningless. The company also added that they were not responsible for the content that is posted on the world’s largest social network and they were not to be blamed for hosting the content of the complaint. Facebook India is yet to file its reply and the next hearing for the case is scheduled on November 30.

~Written by Daiwik Tadikonda