On December 14, the Frankfurt Regional Court handed down a ruling against Twitter in a pilot case. The short message service has been asked to remove illegal and derogatory content and make sure it does not reappear. Additionally, Twitter is also expected to remove “core claims” in the future. In the event of a culpable contravention, a fine of €250,000 per file is envisaged. In addition, detention of managers could be ordered. But the billionaire Elon Musk’s media company does not see it and appeals.
Lawyer Jun: The process can take several years
Würzburg IT lawyer Chan-jo Jun is not surprised. “Twitter will probably run the process through all instances, but we are prepared for that,” Jun told BR24. “The process may (…) still take three to five years.”
Jun had represented Baden-Württemberg’s commissioner against anti-Semitism, Michael Blume, in the Twitter case. The tweets had alleged that Blume was either in a relationship or had paedophilic tendencies. Another Twitter user had accused him of, among other things, anti-Semitism. Blume asked the court for an injunction to take down these and other similar tweets.
Twitter faces fines
Twitter has so far only deleted a few tweets upon notification, but has refused to delete numerous tweets that were submitted by third parties via the normal reporting process, Jun told BR24: “We will then begin enforcement against Twitter and seek sanctions.”
Twitter had argued in court that it was unreasonable to track down and remove tweets that had the same meaning or core. “However, Twitter has not explained why this would not be reasonable or what the costs would be,” emphasizes the Würzburg lawyer. Twitter also said there was no urgency for the injunction because the account of a user who had posted false disparaging statements against Jun’s customers had been deleted. “Yesterday, however, we found that the account was reactivated and the content in question was redistributed from there again.” According to Jun, the account was blocked again only after a new intervention by Twitter’s lawyers.
Decision on the appeal in the accelerated procedure
The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court will decide on the appeal in an expedited procedure. “We are awaiting this with great enthusiasm, since the Künast v. Facebook/Meta case is also pending before the Higher Regional Court. It would thus be the first decision of the Higher Regional Court on the question of the content monitoring obligation which is essentially the same.”
Jun had represented Green politician Renate Künast in court against Facebook and concocted deleted quotes. For his efforts, the Würzburg lawyer was awarded the Max Dortu Prize for civil courage in September 2022.
