They were on trial for refusing to help the justice system identify the authors of abusive tweets targeting an official of the Yvelines prefecture.

Twitter France and its general manager Damien Viel were released on Monday by the Versailles criminal court.

The prosecution had requested during the hearing in January the maximum fine against the company and its general manager, tried respectively for “refusal to respond to a requisition” and “complicity in public insult”.

“We welcome the decision rendered by the Versailles criminal court which clears Twitter France and Damien Viel of the facts with which they are accused,” the company said in a press release.

“We should hang him at the Liberation that one”

In March 2021, the prefecture of Yvelines had posted a tweet calling for respect for the curfew and showing the secretary general of the prefecture in control operations.

An anonymous Twitter user reacted by comparing the police to the Pétain police.

Another described the head of the prefecture as a “Nazi”, adding: “we should hang him at the Liberation that one”.

The secretary general of the prefecture lodged a complaint.

The Versailles prosecutor's office then opened an investigation for insult against the authors of these two tweets.

To identify them, the gendarmes sent a requisition to Twitter France which remained a dead letter.

At the helm, Damien Viel defended himself by recalling that Twitter France "is an entity that does not store data", the latter being stored and processed by the European subsidiary of the parent company Twitter Inc, located in Ireland.

"I am in charge of the economic development of Twitter and nothing else," he added.

Moderation issues

In another procedure, the Paris Court of Appeal forced Twitter in January to communicate the documents detailing precisely its means of combating online hatred.

Several anti-discrimination associations had taken the network to court, judging that it was “old and persistent” in breach of its content moderation obligations.

The social network is very often singled out for its moderation problems.

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  • Ile-de-France

  • Justice

  • Twitter

  • Insult

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