Anonymous Facebook List Causes Class Action Lawsuit

A request for authorization of a class action lawsuit was filed against Facebook and its Canadian subsidiary Tuesday on behalf of a man who alleges his reputation was destroyed by allegations of sexual misconduct published anonymously on Facebook.

Facebook is facing yet another Canadian class action lawsuit, just a few months after it agreed to pay $9.5 million to settle allegations by Canada’s Competition Bureau that it had misled Facebook users about third party access to their data.

The anonymous Facebook list class action lawsuit specifically targets the Facebook page “Dis son nom” (“say his name”), Victims Voices pages published on Instagram, another social network owned by Facebook, and any other social media platform that publishes allegations against individuals anonymously.

The anonymous Facebook list class action lawsuit alleges that Facebook is liable for not taking appropriate steps to remove all publications that may be defamatory or harmful to a member of the public.

The Facebook class action lawsuit comes at a time when Quebec is seeing a wave of social media denunciations and accusations against potential sexual predators. For example, Québécoise singer and songwriter, Safia Nolin, denounced Maripier Morin on Instagram for sexual harassment, one of the more mediatized cases of social media denunciations in the province.

As of today, the anonymous Facebook sexual predator list generated over 1,200 shares, over 1,200 comments, 7,301 likes, and more than 1,300 reactions.

An Anonymous Facebook List With Serious Repercussions

The plaintiff in the anonymous Facebook list class action lawsuit, identified by the initials C.D., claims to have a very common name in Quebec, and that he now finds himself in the midst of a whirlwind of anonymous and accusations that others think are about him.

According to C.D., he is not the person targeted by the anonymous list, but he nevertheless had to endure numerous questions from his spouse, friends and co-workers within hours of the publication of his name and the allegations associated with it.

C.D. alleges that in the first few hours after the anonymous list was published, his wife received a text message from one of her friends, asking her why her husband’s name was on the list. This was the beginning of C.D.’s nightmare.

The plaintiff then asked Facebook to clarify the information on the anonymous list page so that he should not be associated with the list, but to no avail.

C.D. was bombarded with even more questions about the presence of his name on the list, when he and his wife attended a party a few days later.

According to the anonymous Facebook list class action lawsuit, following the publication of the anonymous list, C.D. began to suffer from anxiety, panic attacks and insomnia.

Facebook: Not an Appropriate Forum

The anonymous Facebook list class action lawsuit argues that the list is an illegal publication, “because it constitutes an unequivocal risk of defamation under the Civil Code of Québec and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

“Social media, particularly the ones owned by Facebook, are therefore not an appropriate forum for victims to seek justice given the inability to verify and validate the veracity of anonymous allegations.”

CaLex, the law firm representing the plaintiff in the anonymous Facebook list class action lawsuit, specifies that the class action lawsuit against Facebook “is not in any way intended to condemn the victims of sexual assault,” nor any allegations they made in accordance with the law.

Class members included in the anonymous Facebook list class action lawsuit are all individuals and/or legal entities as well as their heirs, whose reputation or dignity was harmed as a result of the association of their first and last names and/or their corporate name and/or details enabling them to be identified with one or more defamatory publication(s) published on the “dis son nom” and/or “Victims Voices” Facebook pages and/or another page that anonymously publishes allegations of harassment or assault of a sexual nature and disseminated to the public through Facebook or Instagram.

The anonymous Facebook list class action lawsuit seeks moral damages, punitive and exemplary damages to be assessed by the Court.

If the class action lawsuit against Facebook is authorized by the Superior Court, thousands of people could be represented for defamation and other damages caused by the anonymous Facebook list.

What do you think about the anonymous list on Facebook? Were you or someone you know harmed by anonymous allegations on social media? Share your story with us in the comment section below!

The lead plaintiff and Class Members are represented by CaLex Legal Inc.

The Anonymous Facebook List Class Action Lawsuit is C.D., v. Facebook Inc., Case No. 500-06-001087-200, in the Superior Court of Québec, District of Montreal, Canada.

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