Court order to disclose the identity of Twitter users who spread the conspiracy theory

A court order has been issued to Twitter to publish the account registration information and IP address for the Twitter account that created the fake FBI document and provided the false information to the news media.

ORDER RICH
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7223134-ORDER-RICH.html

Judge Orders Twitter To Unmask FBI Impersonator Who Set Off Seth Rich Conspiracy: NPR
https://www.npr.org/2020/10/07/921285470/judge-orders-twitter-to-unmask-fbi-impersonator-who-set-off-seth-rich-conspiracy

On July 10, 2016, Seth Rich, a Democratic Party National Commission (DNC) employee, was shot dead from behind in Washington, DC, USA. Regarding Mr. Rich's death, FoxNews.com reported in May 2017 that 'it could be the biggest scandal in American history.' According to FoxNews, Rich was the source of the DNC email exposed by WikiLeaks and was 'murdered in a very suspicious situation.'

In 2018, the Washington Times published an article that 'Rich's brother, Aaron Rich, helped steal email in exchange for receiving money from WikiLeaks.' The news had a major impact on American society and politics at the time, including a report on Russia's hacking by Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Robert Mueller based on the information that 'Mr. Rich provided information to WikiLeaks.' It was.

However, the news was subsequently deleted as 'after proper review, it was determined that it did not meet the criteria.' Fox News makes no excuses or apologies for this matter.

Statement on coverage of Seth Rich murder investigation | Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/statement-on-coverage-of-seth-rich-murder-investigation

Rich's bereaved family sued Fox News commentator Ed Butovsky, activist Matt Kauch, and the Washington Times for being hurt by unfounded stories even after the news turned out to be a lie. did. The Washington Times has since withdrawn the article and apologized .

In this case, a bereaved lawyer claimed that a Twitter user named '@whyspertech' created a fake FBI document and provided it to Fox News to spread the conspiracy theory about Mr. Rich's murder. The account '@whyspertech' was already deleted at the time of writing the article, but the lawyer said that disclosure of information about the account would reveal the truth of the case. Twitter has kept the user's identity secret from a privacy perspective, but on October 7, 2020, a court order was issued ordering Twitter to reveal the identity of '@whyspertech'. It turned out that.

The court order requires disclosure of only 'limited account registration information' and 'IP address' and does not include private messages sent from the account. Twitter attorney Julie Schwartz claimed in court that such disclosure violated the rights of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution , but the court said, 'The scope of disclosure is limited and Twitter is overburdened. I dismissed Twitter's claim as 'it will not be.'

Schwartz has not commented on the ruling, and it is unclear at the time of writing whether Twitter will appeal.