Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (Italy) - 9775948

Garante per la protezione dei dati personali - 9775327
Authority:	Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (Italy)
Jurisdiction:	Italy
Relevant Law:	Art. 144-bis d.lgs. 30 giugno 2003, n. 196
Type:	Complaint
Outcome:	Upheld
Started:
Decided:	28.04.2022
Published:
Fine:	n/a
Parties:	an unnamed data subject Facebook Italy Meta Platforms Ireland Limited
National Case Number/Name:	9775327
European Case Law Identifier:	n/a
Appeal:	Unknown
Original Language(s):	Italian
Original Source:	Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali (in IT)
Initial Contributor:	Carloc

Following a complaint, the Italian DPA ordered Facebook Italy and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited to remove revenge porn material related to the complainant

English Summary

Facts

The Italian DPA received a complaint from an unnamed person. The author of the claim is the data controller. Facebook Italy and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited are the data controllers.

The data subject claimed that they were victim of revenge porn, as defined by Article 144-bis of the Italian Privacy Code. The DPA disclose no further details about the case.

Holding

On 28 April 2022 the Italian DPA ordered Facebook Italy and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited to stop the diffusion of the revenge porn material related to the data subject. The DPA also ordered the controllers to store the data for evidentiary use and to take measures to prevent identification of the data subject.

Comment

This is one of five decisions in which the Italian DPA first implemented a new urgency procedure for handling revenge porn. The DPA adopted Article 33-bis of its internal procedural regulation in January 2022. Article 144-bis of the Italian Privacy Code was introduced in October 2021 by legislative decree and forms the basis for Article 33-bis of the DPA's procedural regulation.

The urgency procedure allows victims of revenge porn to submit a complaint to the DPA and upload the pornographic material in encrypted form the DPA’s own website. The DPA will then verify the complaint and take urgent measures within 48 hours. Specifically, the DPA will order social media or content sharing platforms to stop broadcasting the pornographic material. Platforms are also required to store the pornographic material for up to 12 months for evidentiary use, and to take measures to prevent the identification of the data subject while the material is stored.

The DPA did not disclose the data of the complaint. For this reason, it is not known whether the DPA acted on the complaint within the 48 hour deadline.

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English Machine Translation of the Decision

The decision below is a machine translation of the Italian original. Please refer to the Italian original for more details.

[doc. web n. 9775327]

Provision of 28 April 2022

Record of measures
n. 161 of 28 April 2022

THE GUARANTOR FOR THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA

IN today's meeting, which was attended by Professor Ginevra Cerrina Feroni, vice president, dr. Agostino Ghiglia and the lawyer Guido Scorza, members, and the cons. Fabio Mattei, general secretary;

GIVEN the Regulation (EU) n. 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 (hereinafter, the "Regulation");

CONSIDERING also the Code regarding the protection of personal data (Legislative Decree 30 June 2003, n. 196, hereinafter the "Code" as amended by Legislative Decree 10 August 2018, n. 101);

GIVEN art. 144-bis of the Code, introduced with the d.l. 8 October 2021, n. 139, converted with the law 3 December 2021, n. 205, which attributes to the Guarantor the competence to receive reports from "anyone, including minors over fourteen, has reasonable grounds to believe that audio recordings, images or videos or other computer documents with sexually explicit content concerning him, intended to remain private individuals, may be sent, delivered, sold, published or disseminated through digital platforms without your consent "(so-called" revenge porn ");

GIVEN the same art. 144-bis of the Code, which provides that the Guarantor, within forty-eight hours of receiving the report, decides pursuant to articles 143 and 144 of the Code;

GIVEN art. 33-bis of the regulation of the Guarantor of 4 April 2019, n. 1 ("Internal procedures with external relevance, aimed at carrying out the tasks and exercising the powers delegated to the Guarantor for the protection of personal data"), as introduced by the resolution of the Guarantor no. 33 of January 27, 2022, which assigns to the Manager of the competent Department the task of urgently adopting a provision aimed at preventing the possible dissemination of the material subject to reporting, unless subsequently ratified by the Guarantor;

GIVEN the report registered at the Guarantor's Office with no. XX with which the interested party represented to pay in one of the hypotheses provided for by the aforementioned art. 144-bis of the Code and asked the Authority to intervene on the Facebook platform indicated by the same;

GIVEN the determination of April 26, 2022 by which, having verified the compatibility of what was reported with the aforementioned provision, the manager of the Freedom of Thought and Cyberbullying Department urgently proceeded to:

order Facebook Italy and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited to immediately adopt measures aimed at preventing the dissemination on Facebook platforms of the material covered by the aforementioned report, transmitted by the Office in the manner indicated by Facebook Italy for this first phase of implementation of the regulatory provision ;

prescribe to the same company the conservation of any material subject to the report that should be acquired unencrypted from the relative platform, for evidential purposes only, for twelve months from receipt of the provision using suitable measures to prevent the direct identifiability of the interested parties to be communicated promptly to the Authority;

GIVEN the note dated April 26, 2022 with which the aforementioned executive decision was sent to the platform manager;

HAVING REGARD to the observations made pursuant to art. 15 of the regulation of the Guarantor n. 1/2000;

HAVING REGARD to the documentation on file;

SPEAKER Prof. Ginevra Cerrina Feroni;

WHEREAS, THE GUARANTOR

pursuant to art. 33-bis, paragraph 2, of regulation no. 1/2019, ratifies the provision adopted urgently by the manager of the Freedom of Thought and Cyberbullying Department on April 26, 2022 against Facebook Italy and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited.

Rome, April 28, 2022

THE VICE-PRESIDENT
Cerrina Feroni

THE RAPPORTEUR
Cerrina Feroni

THE SECRETARY GENERAL
Mattei

[doc. web n. 9775327]

Provision of 28 April 2022

Record of measures
n. 161 of 28 April 2022

THE GUARANTOR FOR THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA

IN today's meeting, which was attended by Professor Ginevra Cerrina Feroni, vice president, dr. Agostino Ghiglia and the lawyer Guido Scorza, members, and the cons. Fabio Mattei, general secretary;

GIVEN the Regulation (EU) n. 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 (hereinafter, the "Regulation");

CONSIDERING also the Code regarding the protection of personal data (Legislative Decree 30 June 2003, n. 196, hereinafter the "Code" as amended by Legislative Decree 10 August 2018, n. 101);

GIVEN art. 144-bis of the Code, introduced with the d.l. 8 October 2021, n. 139, converted with the law 3 December 2021, n. 205, which attributes to the Guarantor the competence to receive reports from "anyone, including minors over fourteen, has reasonable grounds to believe that audio recordings, images or videos or other computer documents with sexually explicit content concerning him, intended to remain private individuals, may be sent, delivered, sold, published or disseminated through digital platforms without your consent "(so-called" revenge porn ");

GIVEN the same art. 144-bis of the Code, which provides that the Guarantor, within forty-eight hours of receiving the report, decides pursuant to articles 143 and 144 of the Code;

GIVEN art. 33-bis of the regulation of the Guarantor of 4 April 2019, n. 1 ("Internal procedures with external relevance, aimed at carrying out the tasks and exercising the powers delegated to the Guarantor for the protection of personal data"), as introduced by the resolution of the Guarantor no. 33 of January 27, 2022, which assigns to the Manager of the competent Department the task of urgently adopting a provision aimed at preventing the possible dissemination of the material subject to reporting, unless subsequently ratified by the Guarantor;

GIVEN the report registered at the Guarantor's Office with no. XX with which the interested party represented to pay in one of the hypotheses provided for by the aforementioned art. 144-bis of the Code and asked the Authority to intervene on the Facebook platform indicated by the same;

GIVEN the determination of April 26, 2022 by which, having verified the compatibility of what was reported with the aforementioned provision, the manager of the Freedom of Thought and Cyberbullying Department urgently proceeded to:

order Facebook Italy and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited to immediately adopt measures aimed at preventing the dissemination on Facebook platforms of the material covered by the aforementioned report, transmitted by the Office in the manner indicated by Facebook Italy for this first phase of implementation of the regulatory provision ;

prescribe to the same company the conservation of any material subject to the report that should be acquired unencrypted from the relative platform, for evidential purposes only, for twelve months from receipt of the provision using suitable measures to prevent the direct identifiability of the interested parties to be communicated promptly to the Authority;

GIVEN the note dated April 26, 2022 with which the aforementioned executive decision was sent to the platform manager;

HAVING REGARD to the observations made pursuant to art. 15 of the regulation of the Guarantor n. 1/2000;

HAVING REGARD to the documentation on file;

SPEAKER Prof. Ginevra Cerrina Feroni;

WHEREAS, THE GUARANTOR

pursuant to art. 33-bis, paragraph 2, of regulation no. 1/2019, ratifies the provision adopted urgently by the manager of the Freedom of Thought and Cyberbullying Department on April 26, 2022 against Facebook Italy and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited.

Rome, April 28, 2022

THE VICE-PRESIDENT
Cerrina Feroni

THE RAPPORTEUR
Cerrina Feroni

THE SECRETARY GENERAL
Mattei