Renate Künast Challenges Facebook Over False Memes in Landmark Case

The German Federal Court examines whether Facebook must proactively remove and prevent the spread of misleading posts targeting the politician.

Renate Künast, a German Green Party politician, has sued Facebook's parent company Meta over the repeated circulation of a false quote attributed to her in memes.
The case focuses on whether Facebook is obligated to proactively filter and remove 'kerngleiche' (core-identical) versions of such misleading content without requiring user reports.
Meta argues that the inclusion of captions complicates automated detection and that it is not obligated to manually review posts due to its hosting provider status under EU law.
The Federal Court raised the possibility of applying EU laws, including the GDPR and Digital Services Act, rather than German national law, potentially delaying a final ruling.
Künast also seeks €10,000 in damages for delayed removal of harmful content, though lower courts have issued differing rulings on this claim.