Facebook
says it is unable to comply with a Dutch court order instructing it to
help identify someone who posted a revenge-porn video clip on the
social-media platform earlier this year.
The anonymous user deleted their account and the video - taken in 2011 - shortly after posting the clip in January this year.The woman who appears in the video had taken Facebook to court in Amsterdam.
It is Facebook policy to delete user data 90 days after an account closure.
"The offending account was ultimately deleted before we received any request for user data, so all information about it was removed from our servers in accordance with our terms and applicable law," Facebook said in a statement.
"We deeply empathise with the victim's experience and share her desire to keep this kind of non-consensual imagery off of Facebook."
The court said independent experts should be given access to Facebook's servers to check whether the data was indeed untraceable.
Though removed within an hour of going on Facebook, the video had already been circulated on the net, Reuters reported.
Both the 21-year-old woman, known only as Chantal, and her former boyfriend, who also appears in the video, were below the age of 18 when it was filmed.
Her ex-partner has denied being the anonymous poster.
