The Federal Data Protection Commissioner is of the opinion that an authority cannot operate a Facebook fan page in accordance with the law. However, the federal government does not want to allow this to be prohibited.
The Federal Press Office (BPA) has filed a lawsuit against an order from the Federal Data Protection Commissioner and does not want to withdraw from the social network Facebook. A BPA spokeswoman said on Friday that the decision had been examined in detail and a decision had been made to have it checked by a court. The lawsuit was filed with the administrative court in Cologne. This means that the office can continue to operate the federal government’s fan page for the time being.
A month ago, the Federal Data Protection Commissioner Ulrich Kelber instructed the BPA to stop operating the federal government’s Facebook fan page. He is of the opinion that the operation of a Facebook fan page is not possible for an authority in compliance with data protection. Kelber refers to investigations by his authority and a short report from the data protection conference, in which the state data protection officers are also represented.
All authorities are responsible for adhering to the law in an exemplary manner, explained Kelber. According to the result of his tests when operating a fan page, this is currently impossible due to the extensive processing of personal data of users.
Government disagrees
In the dispute over the Facebook fan page, deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner contradicted the order. From our point of view, our Facebook presence is an important part of our public relations work, which we want to stick to for the time being, said Büchner at the end of February.
The Federal Press Office has now stated that the judicial review will enable legal clarity for the operation of Facebook pages to be created in a kind of test case. This procedure is about clarifying fundamental, complex factual and legal issues relating to European data protection law. We are of the opinion that Facebook alone is responsible for its data processing under data protection law and that data protection issues must be clarified solely in relation to Facebook.
A spokeswoman explained that the Facebook presence will remain an important part of the public relations work of the BPA until a final judicial clarification. The Federal Government has a constitutionally required mandate to inform the citizens about the activities, projects and goals of the Federal Government. In order to reach the citizens, we have to focus on their actual media use.
