By Rose Onda
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favour of social media giant Facebook, dismissing the lawsuit accusing Facebook Inc. of violating federal law.
On Thursday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a 9-0 decision, held up Facebook’s argument that its text messages did not violate a 1991 federal law called the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
The ruling held that Facebook sending individuals text messages without user consent did not fall under the definition of the offence laid out legally.
The law in question is the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (1991), enacted before the rise of modern cell phone technology.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2015 in a California federal court by Noah Duguid, who argued that Facebook sent him many automatic text messages without his consent.
Mr Duguid argued that the social media company repeatedly sent him account login notifications by text message to his cellphone, even not being a user of its mobile application.
In its response, Facebook argued that it was likely Mr Duguid had been assigned a phone number previously linked to a Facebook user and that its messages were activities when users tried to access their accounts from new devices.
“As the court recognised, the law’s provisions were never intended to prohibit companies from sending targeted security notifications, and the court’s decision will allow companies to continue working to keep the accounts of their users safe,” the social media company said in a statement.
Voice of America quoted Mr Duguid’s lawyer, Sergei Lemberg, as saying, “This is a disappointing ruling for anyone who owns a cellphone or values their privacy.