Facebook told to grant grieving mother access to daughter's account

German court rules parents can inherit contract between a child and a social media site

Facebook must grant a grieving mother access to her late daughter's profile and private messages on the social network, Germany's highest court has ruled.

In a landmark judgment for the treatment of social media data after its owner's death, Germany's constitutional court in Karlsruhe ruled on Thursday that parents can inherit the contract between their child and a social media platform in the same way they would be able to inherit physical documents such as diaries and private letters.