Creating fake user accounts is a relatively new phenomenon in the context of violations of personal rights. Such an account (User Profile) in relation to a website is a collection of information and materials about a given person gathered under a specific web address. The mere fact of possessing such an account is, of course, legal, provided that it pertains to the person who created it. However, it is illegal to create profiles for other individuals, even if the information provided is truthful and does not involve a negative assessment of those individuals.
A very good example illustrating the violation of a user's personal rights on a portal is the situation from 2008 when an unknown person created an account on the Nasza-klasa portal that contained personal data in the form of a first name, last name, place of residence, phone number, age, and photographs of a specific individual. In addition to the actual place of residence, date of birth, and a reserved phone number, the town of Tel Aviv was provided, along with the surname "Holzbaum" next to the plaintiff's name.
The person who was portrayed as an anti-Semite (and later also as an alcoholic through subsequent posts) immediately reported the above fact to the portal's administrator upon receiving information about the violation of their good name, but the profile was removed only after five weeks!
It is worth noting that every internet user (regardless of whether they are a user of a given portal or not) has the right to report to moderators any content they consider offensive or infringing on their rights.
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Returning to our example, the individual in question filed a lawsuit against the portal, highlighting the delays and prolonged actions of the data controllers. The court of first instance ruled in favor of the plaintiff – it ordered the publication of an apology and the payment of PLN 5,000 to the aggrieved party as compensation. The court further stated that anyone who provides resources of an information system (the Nasza-klasa portal) for the purpose of storing data by the service recipient (the user) becomes aware of the unlawful activities of the service recipient at the moment when credible information is delivered to them. It is unacceptable to assert that the fact of receiving credible information about violations would depend on the willingness of the person providing the resources of the information system to familiarize themselves with it.
The court also stated that imposing a requirement on the moderator to continuously filter and remove statements that violate or may violate the law, in an objective belief, would be contrary to the provisions of Articles 14 and 15 in conjunction with Article 12 of the Act on Providing Services by Electronic Means, as the social media portal (Nasza-klasa) is an unmoderated portal, and therefore the obligation to filter and continuously monitor the content appearing there does not burden it.
In summary, if we receive information that a false user account is operating within our portal (especially one that violates personal rights), we are obliged to take appropriate action immediately. It does not matter whether the person whose rights have been violated is actually a user of the portal or not. Furthermore, taking action is not dependent on the familiarity and response of the person who created the fictitious account.
