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Court spokeswoman Annette Gabriel talks about the verdict in the juridical dispute over the virtual legacy at Facebook of a deceased underage girl. DPA/PA Images

German court denies parents access to dead teen's Facebook account

The parents want to know if their child died by suicide.

A GERMAN COURT backed online giant Facebook in its battle to reject a demand by the parents of a dead teenage girl for access to her  account.

The 15-year-old was killed by a Berlin underground train in 2012 and her parents have been trying since to establish if she died by suicide by jumping onto the tracks.

They want access to her Facebook account to examine if she had ever mentioned a death wish in chats with friends or in any posts.

A first Berlin court had ruled in favour of the parents’ request, finding that the contents of the girl’s Facebook account are part of her legacy.

The panel found that emails and Facebook entries were similar to letters and diaries, which “can be inherited regardless of their content”.

Denied

An appeals court ruled in favour of the US online group, which argued that opening up the account would compromise the privacy of the teenager’s contacts.

Facebook has faced increased scrutiny in Germany, where authorities have proposed heavy fines if online social networks fail to wipe illegal hate speech from their sites.

In a recent high-profile court case, the website clinched victory against a Syrian refugee whose selfie with Chancellor Angela Merkel made him the target of racist trolls.

The refugee had sought to get the online group to search out and delete defamatory posts, but the court ruled that it was unclear whether Facebook was able to conduct such searches without surmounting major technical hurdles.

© – AFP 2017

Read: Fear, confusion and rotting corpses: Inside the Philippine city besieged by IS-linked militants

Read: IS-linked militants have taken parts of a Philippine city and have been killing women and children

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    Mute Tom Red
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    Nov 1st 2014, 8:43 AM

    Heard about this story through the grapevine yesterday……

    296
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    Mute Jennie
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    Nov 1st 2014, 8:56 AM

    Song number 2 won’t pay for me….

    204
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    Mute John O'Neill
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    Nov 1st 2014, 12:41 PM

    Neither will play for me. Does this mean they’re the same?

    64
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    Mute Rocky Jones
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    Nov 1st 2014, 9:20 AM

    Might help if you could play them?

    130
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    Mute Ollie Ryan
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    Nov 1st 2014, 9:28 AM

    ‘This video is not available’

    101
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    Mute 3monkey
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    Nov 1st 2014, 9:37 AM

    Ditto

    57
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    Mute Ciarán Behan
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    Nov 1st 2014, 9:07 AM

    Song two broke

    95
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    Mute johngahan
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    Nov 1st 2014, 8:51 AM

    Robbin’ Thicko.

    72
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    Mute Stan Stynes
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    Nov 1st 2014, 8:42 AM

    Where’s the option for they don’t sound alike, because they don’t sound alike?

    66
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    Mute Elaine Brennan
    Favourite Elaine Brennan
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    Nov 1st 2014, 10:27 AM

    Ian dempsey played blurred lines a few weeks ago. ..the very last thing I ever want to hear again is the song finishing and Ian continuing with ‘I know you want it..’ puke!

    56
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    Mute Brian Mulligan
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    Nov 1st 2014, 10:44 AM

    Ian has recently taken to singing the last few lines of another song in an Irish /Caribbean accent “all about da bass, da bass” Makes me want to eat my own face!

    36
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    Mute Sergeant Yates
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    Nov 1st 2014, 8:55 AM

    Reminds me of the great Morecambe and Wise sketch when playing for Andre Previn – and he tells Eric that he’s playing the wrong notes – ‘i’m playing the right notes – but not necessarily in the right order’.

    52
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    Mute Leopold Dedalus
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    Nov 1st 2014, 9:40 AM

    Another rip off, if you look hard enough you’ll probably find a lot of modern songs do this. I remember people used to say Kid Rock was putting his own twist on Sweet Home Alabama with that summer song he had, turned out he’d taken the whole thing from another song called Werewolves of London. In his case I think he had permission but he just keeps it quiet so people think he wrote it himself. A lot of these so-called musicians’ only talent is being marketable. It’s even more obvious now the only reason Pharrell Williams was brought in for Blurred Lines was exposure, not for his musical ability because they already had the bones of the song and anyone could turn Gaye’s into Thicke’s with the software that’s available now. It’s a soulless industry now.

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    Mute Charlie Mountney
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    Nov 1st 2014, 10:03 AM

    Does there come a point where modern pop simply runs out of notes to play an starts to consume itself?

    Anyhow, never mind all that. To my ears, pop music a la Spin South West sounds bloody awful. If young people were listening to stuff I liked that would be more of a concern. C’mon da Biffy an all that.

    Anyone notice how much Dylan’s “With God on our Side” sounds like “The Patriot Game” by our very own Dominic Behan?
    There’s a true scandal.

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    Mute Jennie
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    Nov 1st 2014, 8:56 AM

    Play *

    23
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    Mute Hugh Cavanagh
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    Nov 1st 2014, 1:38 PM

    This non playback situation is happening regularly on the Journal. Why don’t you check what you’re posting guys as its very annoying and amateurish.

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    Mute Jennie
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    Nov 1st 2014, 9:42 AM

    Video playback restricted on certain sites….?

    10
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