Twitter International Company (TIC) in Dublin, Ireland was reportedly ordered by a High Court to disclose data about the source of tweets about a whistleblower. The tweets, which included allegations of insurance fraud, are alleged to be defamatory.
The whistleblower provided the government with evidence that Irish hospital staff were accepting lavish gifts from a supplier. The whistleblower has brought a defamation action against the poster of the tweets, and asked the court to require
Twitter to turn over information that would allow the whistleblower to identify the poster. The Court order TIC to turn over the poster’s name. The Court also issued an injunction to prohibit the destruction of any evidence or records related to the tweets.
Twitter’s policy is to not turn over information until required to do so by a court order. This is not the first time this year Twitter has made news for issues related to court orders to obtain access to user data. Earlier this year, San Francisco based Twitter changed its privacy policy for non-U.S. citizens. Non-U.S. citizen Twitter accounts are now held by Twitter International Company in Dublin, Ireland. This change was made to insulate non-U.S. citizens from the U.S. National Security Agency and other federal agency requests for their data. The accounts of U.S. citizens continue to be held by Twitter Inc. These changes also affect Periscope users as well.
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