A 21-year-old woman in the Netherlands became the victim of Facebook revenge-porn when an anonymous user posted a video of her performing a sexual act. The other party involved in the act denied posting it, and both the video and the account that posted it were quickly removed from Facebook. However, the video was shared and lives on the Internet beyond its deletion, turning the woman’s life into “hell.” The woman then sued Facebook in Amsterdam, and the Dutch court has ruled that Facebook has two weeks to produce information about the person who posted the video.

For its part, Facebook says that it can’t identify the person behind the video because the request for their information came too late.

“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 empathize with the victim’s experience and share her desire to keep this kind of non-consensual imagery off of Facebook.”

However, the woman and her attorney believe that Facebook must have the video and its accompanying information somewhere.

“Facebook records everything: including accepted ‘friend’ requests with dates and times,” the lawyer said.

This case could prove to be an interesting test of Facebook’s willingness to disclose what it does with our information—and how long it keeps it.

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