Aug 10, 2023 12:02:00

X (formerly Twitter) will be fined 50 million yen for not complying with former President Trump's data delivery request

A court document (PDF file) released on August 9, 2023, local time, revealed that a federal judge had sued the former Twitter for contempt of court in early 2023. As a result, X has been fined $ 350,000 (about 50 million yen).

Twitter held in contempt, found $350K over Trump data delay | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/08/twitter-held-in-contempt-fined-350k-over-trump-data-delay/

Special counsel obtained search warrant for Donald Trump's Twitter account - POLITICO
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/09/special-counsel-obtained-search-warrant-for-donald-trumps-twitter-account-00110484

Special counsel obtained search warrant for Donald Trump's Twitter account |
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/09/politics/special-counsel-trump-twitter-search-warrant/

In the first week of August 2023, former President Donald Trump was indicted for cheating in the 2020 presidential election. Former President Trump claims innocence and continues to post on his own SNS, Truth Social.

In a post on Truth Social, former President Trump wrote, 'The Justice Department of charlatan Joe Biden has secretly attacked my Twitter account to hide a serious 'attack' on my civil rights from me. My political opponents are in a frenzy trying to undermine the presidential campaign.This has never happened before.Is the First Amendment still in existence? Did an insane Jack Smith order all unselected evidence to be destroyed and deleted? This is a dark day for America!'

Former President Trump's claim of `` secret attack on former President Trump's Twitter account by the Department of Justice '' is based on the fact that US government officials responded to the old Twitter on January 17, 2023, ` ` @realDonaldTrump (Former President Trump's official Twitter account). It starts with obtaining a 'search warrant' requesting Twitter to turn over data and records relating to

Government officials have taken the special step of applying for a non-disclosure order because 'disclosure of the warrant by a district court to former President Trump would 'make it credible to believe the ongoing investigation would be in grave danger. Because we decided that there was a reasonable reason.' In other words, the government authorities applied for a confidentiality order because they judged that ``If former President Trump grasped the situation, he would take action to destroy the evidence.''

Based on this search warrant, government authorities ordered former Twitter to submit former President Trump's Twitter data within 10 days. However, the old Twitter failed to meet this data submission deadline multiple times. Twitter explains why it did not comply with the data submission order because it violated the First Amendment to the Constitution and the Preservation of Communications Act.

In response, the court threatened to impose hefty fines if Old Twitter did not comply with data requests. Initially, the court said, 'If Twitter does not comply with the order, a geometric fine of $ 50,000 (about 7.2 million yen) per day will be doubled every day.' was mentioned.

The former Twitter, which finally submitted the data in accordance with the warrant, said, ``It took time to submit all the data required by the government, and we could not prepare it any faster, so we could not submit the substantive warrant within the deadline. However, U.S. Circuit Judge Florence Pang found Twitter's claims in contempt of court and fined them $350,000. Did. Pan said government officials' interest in former President Trump's Twitter data was 'unquestionably compelling.'

Old Twitter continues to appeal, and government officials allowed partial lifting of the confidentiality order on June 20, 2023. As a result, former President Trump was able to grasp that government officials were secretly trying to obtain his Twitter data.

The former Twitter continued to challenge the confidentiality orders and fines, but the courts rejected most of the claims, and the fines were finally finalized. And the court document will be released on August 9th local time.

Pan said, ``Twitter has never objected to the fine method, even though it has had the opportunity to object on several occasions.'' Considering Twitter's $40 billion valuation and the court's goal of enforcing Twitter's compliance, the final fine of $350,000 was unreasonable. I don't think it's reasonable,' he said.