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Social media giant found in contempt of court after an earlier high court ruling. Ordered to pay costs
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Tech giant Meta has agreed to permanently delete more than 60 WhatsApp channels publishing child pornography involving South African school children and to comply with all requirements of an earlier high court order.
This was after Judge Mudunwazi Makamu in the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Johannesburg handed down a further order on Friday.
Meta was found in contempt of court of an earlier ruling in urgent litigation brought by the Digital Law Company (DLC) led by social media law expert Emma Sadleir.
Contempt
On Monday, Makamu ordered the company to close all accounts and channels linked to the distribution of sexual content involving school children and to “permanently disable the creator of the WhatsApp channels and Instagram profiles listed” from creating any further WhatsApp channels and Instagram profiles.
While Meta agreed to shut down all the accounts and channels linked to the distribution of sexual content involving school children, it never complied with other aspects of the ruling, including handing over the account creators’ details to DLC.
Meta was then served with an urgent contempt of court application.
In his ruling on Friday, Makamu also ordered Meta to disclose “subscriber information” for whoever is behind the accounts distributing the child pornography on WhatsApp and Instagram.
Ruling welcomed
Sadleir welcomed the ruling. “I will forever be indebted to these incredible humans who dropped everything and gave up a whole week to help us with this matter,” she said.
“It looked a bit like David and Goliath in court this morning – our young legal team against an army of senior lawyers. Thank you, team. You gave a whole lot more than 67 minutes this week.”
Information handover
Meta also agreed to provide DLC with information in its possession pertaining to the creator(s) of each of the WhatsApp channels and Instagram profiles listed, in no later than three business days.
“The information provided to the applicant shall not be publicly disclosed to the general public and shall only be used for purposes of reporting to law enforcement potential crimes related to the accounts at issue and taking appropriate legal steps for the protection of children,” the court ordered.
Meta and WhatsApp also agreed to pay DLC’s costs for the urgent application.
ALSO READ: Communications department welcomes ruling on Meta’s WhatsApp and Instagram
Sexual content
DLC launched the interdict in which all lawyers acted pro-bono after Sadleir was contacted about content on the channels that included several explicit images and videos, including that of a Grade 11 pupil from a school south of Johannesburg having sex with a girl in a room.
Another video shows a Grade 12 boy having sex with a Grade 9 girl in a school bathroom, apparently filmed by another pupil.
“If you committed suitcase (sic) RIP, you can haunt me or whatever the plan,” the poster said.
“If your nudes got exposed sies ulayegile sfebe (you deserved it whore). When I come back, I’m opening a page on every single platform expect (sic) Facebook…there won’t be any remorse. Next time when you wanna take nudes, you’ll think more than twice.”
It was such explicit content and filthy language that spurred Sadleir and DLC to pursue the matter in a mammoth David vs Goliath battle.
