A court hearing in which a teenager was seeking an order against Facebook Inc to reveal the identity of an anonymous poster who threatened her with rape, gang rape and murder, was adjourned yesterday.

A TimesLIVE report says the urgent application, scheduled to be heard before Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) Judge Brian Spilg was adjourned until 11 August.

It is believed the adjournment was with the consent of the 13-year-old’s lawyers and those acting for Facebook Inc, and that the parties are talking in an attempt to settle the matter.

Initially, local lawyers acting for Facebook said the company would oppose the application.

The graphic messages were posted on the teenager's Instagram platform under different subscriber names – all variations of the word ‘Killer’ with random numbers – over five days in May this year.

They detailed how she would be murdered, raped and gang raped.

Because they mentioned names of others in her class at school, she believed the person who posted was known to her.

In order to serve her application on Facebook Inc, she had to get the permission of a local judge for ‘substituted service’, and her parents had to hire a lawyer in California in the US to hand-deliver the documents to the company’s Sacramento offices.

The teenager said she intends to get a protection order and lay criminal charges against the person who posted the threats.

Full TimesLIVE report