Joburg teen sues Facebook for not revealing Instagram stalker

A 13-year-old teenager had turned to the high court to force Facebook to reveal the identity of an anonymous Instagram poster who threatened to rape, gang rape and murder her.

Her parents hired a social media lawyer, Emma Sadleir to help persuade the police to take action and to enlist the co-operation of Facebook.

The 13-year-old pupil’s lawyer said that Facebook has decided to play a callous game of cat and mouse with her.

“The game itself is odious because the applicant is not a ‘cat’ and Facebook is certainly not a ‘mouse’.

“It is one of the largest, richest and most powerful corporations in the world. The applicant, on the other hand, is a 13-year-old girl who simply wants to protect herself from the most horrific harm imaginable.

“She ought never to have had to face the hurdles that Facebook’s impenetrable fortress put in her way.”

The graphic messages were posted on her Instagram platform for over five days in May this year.

The teenager, in her court papers said she has been too scared to return to school, too afraid to be left alone at home and struggles to eat or sleep.

She believes that the poster is someone who knows her. He opens and closes different Instagram accounts using different names with the variation of the word “killer”. He also made references to some of her classmates.

They tried engaging Facebook directly but it failed and local lawyers, who acted for the company in the past, refused to accept service of any legal documents.

They were also unable to get the email address of Facebook’s legal department.

As a result of this “impenetrable fortress”, they approached the high court at the end of June, securing an order for “substituted service” and had to hire a lawyer in the US to drive to Sacramento, California, to serve the papers by hand.

The teenager’s lawyers in an argument say she is a victim of crime and if the necessary information she seeks is not provided, she will be susceptible to further harm and physical violence.