MOSCOW, Feb 21The Solntsevsky Court of Moscow rejected Facebook's petition to terminate the proceedings on the claim of the former Russian national football team player Dmitry Khokhlov against the social network, filed due to regular blocking of posts mentioning his last name, a correspondent from the courtroom reports. During the previous hearing, a representative of Facebook (the owner of the social network — Meta Platforms Inc.) filed a motion to dismiss the case due to its lack of jurisdiction of the Solntsevsky Court. The applicant's side, in turn, noted that the jurisdiction of the claim was chosen correctly, and Khokhlov, as a subject of personal data, can sue, according to the law, at his place of residence. According to the Facebook delegate, the plaintiff has no contractual relationship with the social network, and his personal data is not affected by this issue. «Why does the plaintiff believe that the use of this word and its derivatives refers specifically to him? This is erroneous. The surname in this case does not characterize personal data … In this regard, this claim is not subject to consideration,» the lawyer of the social network said, after which the court left for the deliberation room «Reject the petition,» Judge Grigory Shilkin announced the decision, without voicing its reasoning part. After that, the court was forced to postpone the hearing until March 23, since the proceedings on the claim cannot be continued until today's ruling comes into force . A Facebook representative did not comment to reporters whether he intends to challenge the decision. Khokhlov asks the court to oblige Facebook to unblock all mentions of his name in posts and comments. He also demands to pay him 150 million rubles as compensation for non-pecuniary damage. According to his representative, Khokhlov, as a public person, is interested in mentioning his name, but this does not happen due to blocking. The social network, Khokhlov said, marks his last name as a “hostile statement.” According to experts interviewed, social networks owned by Meta do indeed often impose temporary blocks on accounts that publicly use the word “khokhol” and its derivatives. Because of this, mentioning the name Khokhlov causes difficulties for users and the media. Dmitry Khokhlov, a famous Russian football player, champion and winner of the Russian Super Cup, as well as the Dutch Super Cup, has played more than 50 matches for the national team of the country. After completing his playing career in 2010, he became a coach.
