BC Man Is Suing Facebook For $50M Because Of An 'Imposter Page'

A B.C. man has been allowed to proceed with his $50 million lawsuit against Facebook after the social media platform attempted to have it dismissed by the court.

The man is suing the company over an "imposter page," which he claims Facebook should not have allowed to exist.

According to an August 3 2022 judgment from the Supreme Court of British Columbia, a plaintiff, who originally filed a claim on August 25, 2020, has gone after Facebook for an imposter profile that was posted "without his consent or knowledge." The plaintiff, Timothy Craig Durkin, has argued that Facebook "should have verified the identity of the account holder."

On March 15 2020, Durkin, a non-Facebook user, said he was made aware of a Facebook page that was using his identity. The court document reads that Durkin's friends allegedly reported the Facebook page, and additionally that Durkin filled out a form for non-Facebook users to report imposters on the social media platform.

Durkin claims that when he tried to submit the form though, there was an error message that popped up, which said: "Your Request Couldn't be Processed. There was a problem with this request. We are working on getting it fixed as soon as we can."

In the following months, Durkin said that he tried to use the form again but got the same error. Although he said that his friends reported the page, there was allegedly no response from Facebook.

Then on July 21, 2020, Durkin sent a letter to the Managing Director of Facebook Canada Ltd., which requested that the imposter page be removed.

Allegedly, "the imposter page was torn down by the identity thieves," after gaining media attention.

Durkin claimed that the company acted "recklessly, negligently and wilfully," and his claim is seeking $50 million, for "aggravated and punitive damages."

The claim also is asking for the imposter page to be removed and for the identity of the person — or people — who are responsible for creating it, to be disclosed.

On May 7, 2021, the defendants filed an application to "seek the dismissal of the plaintiff’s claim in its entirety for failure to comply with the Rules of Court," the judgement said.

They argued that Durkin's claim "was scandalous, frivolous or vexatious."

The judgement said that Durkin has been involved in multiple other lawsuits, and the defendants claimed that he has "a history of deliberate and wilful non-compliance with the Rules and orders of this court in the context of other litigation."

Durkin said that his claim "raises legitimate and important issues about the privacy of people who participate in social media and it has consequences for millions of those users," the judgement added.

The judge said that Durkin's claim "has its difficulties," but they were "unable at this stage to conclude that it is bound to fail."

The judge dismissed the application made by the defendants, then named Facebook, Inc and Facebook Canada Ltd, but did allow them to substitute Facebook, Inc. for Meta Platforms, Inc., as the named defendant in the lawsuit.

Durkin is now able to amend his claim, to address what the judge took issue with.