Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp and Facebook is at risk of facing litigation action in South Africa after ignoring a court order related to exposing explicit content of school children made public on its platforms. South Africa’s local legal expert Emma Sadleir, the founder of The Digital Law Company, obtained a court order compelling Meta to deactivate certain WhatsApp channels and Instagram accounts and provide identifying information to those individuals.
These accounts, at least 30 on Instagram and six on WhatsApp have been used to circulate pornographic material that features South African school children. The court imposed strict deadlines for compliance: disable the accounts by 19:55 on July 14 and produce the users details such as names, email addresses, phone numbers and IP addresses by 12:00 on July 15.
Why Is Meta Being Taken to Court?
Even with partial compliance disabling a number of accounts, Meta was not compliant with the whole scope of the order. Sadleir argues that Thabo Makenete, Meta’s Southern Africa public policy chief, assured them of Meta’s awareness of the order and demonstrated capacity to act, however key obligations were not complied without explanation of the non-compliance. Sadleir is now seeking a new court order allowing Meta until 14:00 on July 19 to comply in full, failing which a ruling of contempt will be sought.
If Met doesn’t comply, Sadleir intends to seek custody for Makenete of up to 30 days or until compliance is met.
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Can Meta Avoid Contempt Charges?
Meta’s legal representatives in South Africa claim that the incorrect parties were cited and that the individuals with operational control were Meta officials in the United States. Sadleir dismissed this, further clarifying that the original demand was appropriately made to Meta and its worldwide representatives and explained the immediacy of the extraordinary risks these sites posed particularly since every few minutes new accounts are created and the potential harm caused to children increased.
Sadleir insists that Meta has the power and responsibility to end this digital abuse and protect at-risk youth.
