A court in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia has fined social networking site Facebook the equivalent of more than $2,000 for failing to delete a false profile of a user who had asked that it be removed.

A official says Thursday that Facebook must compensate the user for moral damage. The user's name was not revealed. The court official spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to comment the case.

She said Facebook could appeal the ruling at the Superior Court of Justice, Brazil's top appeals court.

According to the court's website, Facebook said it could not monitor or exercise preventive control over millions of postings, because that would amount to censorship which is illegal in Brazil.

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