The Federal Office of Justice (BfJ) has initiated fine proceedings under the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) against Twitter International Unlimited Company. From the point of view of the BfJ, there are sufficient indications of failures in the complaint management of the provider of Twitter in Germany.
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The provider of Twitter is subject to the regulations of the NetzDG. The BfJ has sufficient evidence that it has violated the legal obligation to deal with complaints about illegal content and that this is a systemic failure in the complaint management of the provider subject to a fine.
According to the NetzDG, the provider of Twitter is obliged to maintain an effective and transparent procedure for dealing with complaints from users about illegal content.
Among other things, it must immediately take note of reported content, check whether it is unlawful within the meaning of the NetzDG and delete or block access to illegal content, taking into account the statutory period of seven days or 24 hours in the event of obvious illegality.
According to the NetzDG, content is considered unlawful if it fulfils one of the offences of the Criminal Code listed in § 1 paragraph 3 NetzDG, such as incitement to hatred, insult or threat.
The BfJ was notified of numerous contents that were published on Twitter, which the authority considers to be unlawful and, despite user complaints, have not been deleted or blocked by the provider within the legally prescribed deadlines. This is the basis for the fine proceedings initiated.
In the case of isolated violations of the NetzDG's review and deletion obligations by providers of social networks, it cannot generally be assumed that there is no effective procedure for dealing with complaints about illegal content.
However, a systemic failure of complaint management is subject to a fine if misconduct against the relevant requirements of the NetzDG occurs repeatedly in a timely and factual manner.
The content underlying the fine proceedings against the provider of Twitter has a close temporal and factual connection and is therefore suitable to justify a systemic failure in the complaint management of the provider.
They were published on Twitter over a period of around four months and reported to the Twitter provider by users as unlawful. All content contains similar, unjustified, defamatory expressions of opinion, all directed against the same person. In the opinion of the BfJ, they fulfil the offence of insult.
The BfJ has now given the Twitter provider the opportunity to comment on the allegation of a systemic failure of complaint management.
In the further proceedings, the BfJ will examine the arguments put forward in the opinion. Should the BfJ come to the conclusion that the allegation of unlawful conduct is still justified, the BfJ will apply to the Bonn Local Court for the initiation of preliminary ruling proceedings and at the same time submit the provider's statement.
According to § 4 paragraph 5 NetzDG, prior to the issuance of a fine against providers of social networks for incorrect non-deletion or non-blocking of illegal content, a judicial determination of the illegality of the content is to be obtained. The Bonn District Court is responsible for this so-called preliminary ruling procedure.
Should the Bonn District Court determine the illegality of the content, the BfJ can impose a fine on the provider of Twitter. ■
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