By Special Correspondent
New Delhi: Social activist, Mohammad Abuzar has sent a legal notice to the social media behemoth Facebook after his account on the FB page was memorialized last month. He said the FB officials must tender apology in writing and also publish it on the same platform (Facebook). He also sought Rs 5 lakh in compensation for mental trauma and harassment caused due this malafide action.
Abuzar, who is associated with the NGO Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD), said his account was restored more than a month after it was memorialized. He said the FB acted after he served the notice to it and it also issued an apology to him.
“I attempted to restore my account by following the procedure prescribed by Facebook and uploaded the information sought by Facebook, but then also Facebook did not respond to my requests”
My friends and relatives also made requests on twitter by tagging the Facebook, but facebook has not responded to them also. Finding no positive response from Facebook, I sent a legal notice through my counsel on Monday, he added.
When a Facebook user dies, their account is memorialized to offer friends and family “a place… to gather and share memories after a person has passed away”. You can tell an account is memorialised if the word “Remembering” is shown next to the person’s name on their profile.
It was just four years ago that a glitch reportedly led Facebook to mistakenly memorialize the accounts of 20 lakh people, including that of founder Mark Zuckerberg.
He said he first spotted that Facebook had declared him dead on September 13.
“On 13th September 2020, I woke up with numerous calls from friends and relatives and in a deep shock I came to know that the Facebook has published a false and frivolous message about my death and it asked my friends and relatives to pay their tributes,” said Abuzar.
The legal notice sent through advocate A.A. Chaus, states that “To the utter shock and dismay of my client, on 13th September 2020, my client woke up with a number of phone calls from friends and relatives expressing their grief and many friends visited his house with the same grief.”
It further states that Abuzar was notified by friends and family members that Facebook had posted a public message on his account asking them to pay “tribute” to him by sharing stories.
When Abuzar tried to log into his Facebook account, he was unable to do so, with the following message popping up, “Account unavailable. This account is in a special memorialised state.”
His account was finally restored on October 20.
The social media giant is facing sharp criticism following the expose by r the American media that it’s bias towards the Indian ruling party BJP and ignoring the hate materials posted by the righ wing people.