Grandmother Ordered by Court to Delete Facebook Photos of Grandchildren

A grandmother has been ordered by a European court to remove pictures of her grandchildren from Facebook and Pinterest or face increasing fines.

The incident began after a falling out between the woman and her daughter, the mother of the grandchildren. The mother of the children then requested that the photos be removed several times, but the grandmother refused, leading to the court case, which argued for their removal under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Normally, the GDPR would not apply to “purely personal” data, but due to their appearance on social media making them available to a larger audience, the court ruled the regulation was applicable in this case:

With Facebook, it cannot be ruled out that placed photos may be distributed and may end up in the hands of third parties.

As such, the woman will be subject to a fine of €50 for every day she does not remove the photos, maxing out at €1,000. She will be subject to the same fine if she posts any images of her grandchildren in the future.