It’s a real virtual fight that was settled in a real court. After having his Instagram account deleted following a complaint from businesswoman Magali Berdah, designated “queen of influencers”, rapper Booba had started legal action. The Marseille court finally ruled last Monday and sided with the artist, judging the deletion of the account illegal.
As a reminder, on July 12, again thanks to a judgment, Magali Berdah had succeeded in condemning the rapper for harassment, pushing Meta to delete the rapper’s Instagram account a few hours after the publication of the lawyers’ press release. A decision that has been made “outside any legal framework”according to the Marseilles court since there was no respect for the contradictory.
But at Meta, we turn a deaf ear. Asked by Tech&Co, the platform denies any cause and effect between the deletion of the account and Magali Berdah’s complaint: “The court did not […] not instruct Meta to reactivate this account. The OKLM account [celui de Booba, NDLR] has been deactivated under our repeat offense policy and because the contents of the OKLM account have repeatedly violated the rules of the Instagram service.” Meta has therefore not reinstated the artist’s account, despite the court ruling.
The Marseilles court specified in its judgment, consulted by Tech&Cothat Booba will have to “to ensure the lawful operation of the OKLM account thus restored”. A precision that underlines the will of the court to restore the Instagram account. “Amazed at the reaction of Meta””, Patrick Klugman, lawyer for the artist, assures Tech&Co that he will sue Meta if the Instagram account is not restored. Or how this case could spill over into Booba against the Facebook empire…