They risked a fine of 3,750 to 75,000 euros. Finally, Twitter France and its managing director, Damien Viel, will not have to open the wallet. Respectively prosecuted for “refusal to respond to a requisition” and “complicity in public insult”, they were finally released by the Versailles criminal court on Monday. A decision hailed by the company which assured, with Releasecooperated throughout the investigation and worked in good faith with law enforcement and the criminal court.
It all started in March 2021. At that time, the Yvelines prefecture called for respect for the curfew on its Twitter account, like many other institutions. However, in the comments of the tweet, accompanied by a photo of the secretary general of the prefecture attending control operations, insulting messages emerge. An anonymous Internet user compares the police to the Pétain police. Another qualifies the person in charge of “Nazi” and adds: “We should hang him at the Liberation that one.”
After a complaint filed by the secretary general of the prefecture, the Versailles prosecutor’s office then opened an investigation for insult against the authors of these two tweets. In order to identify them, the gendarmes send a requisition to Twitter France. No response will be given.
This is not the first time that the platform has remained silent in the face of a judicial requisition. In February, the network had already been assigned for “refusal to comply with a request from a judicial authority” and “complicity in the offenses of public insult” by three victims of terrorism. The latter held him responsible for the filing without follow-up of their complaints for cyberharassment, Twitter having not responded to the requests of justice.
This time, however, the French branch of the company was directly targeted. On January 17, the prosecution had requested the maximum fine for Twitter France and its general manager Damien Viel, respectively for “refusal to respond to a requisition” and “complicity in public insult”. Depending on the offence, the fine could amount to 3,750 euros or 75,000 euros.
At the helm, Damien Viel defended himself by recalling that Twitter France was “an entity that does not store data”, the latter being stored and processed by the European subsidiary of the parent company Twitter Inc, based in Ireland. He had added: “I am in charge of the economic development of Twitter and nothing else.” The public prosecutor, for his part, had justified the prosecution as follows: “Twitter International not responding, we decided to embody Twitter France.”
During his indictment, the prosecutor had castigated “complete failure” of “moderation on Twitter”, become in his eyes “a totally asocial network […] which can undermine public peace and the proper functioning of our society”. Indeed, since May 2020, the network has also been sued by several anti-discrimination associations, accusing it of failing “old and persistent” to its obligations of moderation.
After a court decision, the company had to reveal the number of employees present in its moderation teams: 1,867 around the world, as revealed by BFM TV. That is one moderator for 200,000 Internet users.