Blow for Elon Musk after German court rules against Twitter

The German court ruled Twitter had a duty to track down and delete offensive posts, a possible setback to Elon Musk’s ambition to turn Twitter into a hub of free speech.

It is unclear whether Elon Musk will appeal against the Twitter judgment. Picture: Getty Images/The Times

Twitter has lost a pivotal lawsuit after a court ruled that the company had a duty to track down and delete offensive posts even if a victim did not report them individually.

The case sharpens Germany’s already stringent social media regulations and could throw a spanner in the works of Elon Musk’s ambition to turn Twitter into a hub of free speech.

The challenge was brought by Michael Blume, an official leading the government’s campaign against anti-Semitism in the southwest German state of Baden-Wurttemberg.

Blume’s Twitter account had been showered with abuse from other users who falsely accused him of cheating on his wife with underage girls, sympathising with paedophiles and being a closeted anti-Semite.

Under a 2017 law known as NetzDG, Network Enforcement Act, social media platforms are obliged to take down illegal or defamatory content within 24 hours of receiving a complaint or face a fine of up to €5 million ($7.93 million).

Blume reported 50 of the tweets but they were left available to view for more than a week and removed only when the main account behind the campaign was suspended.

The case was taken up by Chan-jo Jun, an activist lawyer who is well known for tackling online hate speech.

Judges at Frankfurt regional court broadly sided with Blume and Jun. Contrary to initial speculation, they did not order Twitter to suspend its operations in Germany.

They ruled that the platform was obliged not only to delete such tweets promptly but also to seek out and eliminate any further posts that repeated the same allegations.

Jun said this was the first such verdict from a German court against Twitter, although there had been a similar ruling against Facebook in 2019. It is unclear whether Twitter will appeal against the judgment.

German law does not recognise precedents in the British sense of the term. In practice, other judges are likely to adopt a similar approach because of the long-standing principles that judgments should be applied consistently and that citizens should be regarded as equal in the eyes of the law.

“Twitter is violating German law with its inadequate efforts to combat hatred,” Jun said.

“But we got something more: the ruling that Twitter has a duty not only to remove the illegal content that is reported, but also to track down fundamentally similar content anywhere on the platform, from any account, and ensure that it ceases.”

The Times