Damien Viel, the CEO of the French branch of the Twitter messenger, has landed in the dock. He is accused of refusing to "share" the data of two users who anonymously posted hateful and threatening messages to a government official. He can also be charged with what the representative of the prosecutor's office demanded at the trial - "the fact of complicity in a public insult".

Depending on what is ultimately proven, the CEO and the structure he leads may be fined from 3,750 to 75,000 euros. So what exactly is Damien Viel's fault? The fact is that in March last year, the prefecture of the Yvelines department in the Ile-de-France metropolitan region posted information on its Twitter account, talking about how its secretary general is involved in operations to control the curfew, which at that time was introduced in connection with the next wave of the covid epidemic. Some of the locals did not like all this, and two responded to the official's tweet in the most rude way, branding the forces of law and order. The offended prefectural employees, along with their boss, filed a lawsuit with the prosecutor's office, who sent a request to the local Twitter branch, demanding to reveal the names of the dissatisfied.

In his defense, the CEO said that he would be happy to help, but all the data is not stored with him, but in the head European structure of Twitter, and it is based in Ireland. The French branch, according to him, is exclusively engaged in the "economic development and support" of the messenger in France. However, the prosecutor was not convinced by these explanations. So the process will continue, and if the names of the offending prefectural employees are not made public, then Twitter will have to pay a fine. The verdict will be announced on March 21.

bbabo.Net