THE 19 YEAR OLD SYRIAN REFUGEE OF GERMANY LIVING HIS YOUTH WITH HIS FACEBOOK ACCOUNT HAS BECOME A WORLDWIDE IMAGE OF THOSE OF HATE AS ANAS MODAMANI SELFIE WITH THE GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL HAS LANDED FACEBOOK ON A LAWSUIT OF TERROR PROPORTION

Life might have turned out differently for Anas Modamani had it not been for the selfie he took. Then he wouldn't have had to hide out in the apartment of a friend in the town of Bitterfeld, Germany, after suddenly falling under suspicion of being a terrorist. But he also wouldn't have been put on the cover of Stern magazine's "Year in Review" issue or appeared on the popular talk show "Maybrit Illner."

But he did take the photo. A selfie with a woman he didn't immediately recognize at the time, but who he quickly realized was Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor and, back then, still a leader advocating on behalf of refugees.
Modamani, a 19-year-old Syrian, has been haunted by this photo, which he took during his first month in Germany as a refugee. Now he is even going to court to force Facebook, the world's most powerful social network, to stop circulating manipulated photos of the event. He claims his selfie, as well as a picture of the moment taken by a news-agency photographer, have been repeatedly abused for the purposes of incitement and defamation, especially on Facebook. "People need to stop," says Modamani.
Headlines Around the World
News of the lawsuit has made headlines around the world because the story combines a number of factors: a photo that gathered attention globally at the time it was taken; Merkel and the refugee crisis; Facebook and the issue of online hate; and the powerlessness of those who are defamed online. Reporters from Britain, Canada and Brazil are all currently trying to land interviews with Modamani, the Syrian in the Merkel selfie.

I met Modamani at his host family's apartment in eastern Berlin. Sitting at the kitchen table, he spent 90 minutes telling his story, in German. He stumbles here and there, but his German is perfectly understandable. Suddenly he pauses, pulls out his iPhone and says: "Should we take a selfie?"
Modamani likes taking photos and posting them on his Facebook page, where the 19-year-old doesn't worry too much about his privacy and where, at the time our interview took place, he had 2,789 friends. Far less normal is the fact that the photo of his Merkel selfie has been systematically and repeatedly used to defame him -- at times as a "terrorist" and at others as a "violent criminal."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/selfie-with-merkel-haunts-young-syrian-refugee-a-1130768.html