Wow… talk about sensationalized headlines.
Maija Palmer reports:
Tony Wang, the new European head of Twitter, has indicated that it could give police details of users who broke a UK super-injunction banning them from naming Ryan Giggs as the footballer at the centre of a privacy debate.
Mr Wang said the US microblogging site would pass details to the police if “legally required” to do so.
He would not comment specifically on the case but said Twitter would comply with local laws to hand over details. Mr Wang said, however, that it would also seek to notify users if this happened, so that they could defend themselves.
“If people are doing bad stuff with your service … Platforms should have responsibility not to defend the user but to protect that user’s right to defend his or herself,” Mr Wang told the e-G8 forum in Paris.
Read more on Financial Times.
Okay, so what was really said/meant? It turns out that all Twitter’s EU chief was saying is what Twitter’s always said: of course, they will comply with lawful court orders, but they will continue to try to protect user privacy by requiring a lawful order and by notifying users whenever possible so that they can fight any order compelling Twitter to turn over their information.
In other words: there was really nothing new here, folks. Move along….