Twitter ordered to give details of parody account

THE High Court has ordered Twitter to provide information to Fastway Couriers aimed at identifying the operator of a parody account, allegedly abusive and damaging to the courier company, for the purpose of suing them.

The account first appeared on Twitter in late 2019, was most recently renamed Fartway Deliveries Ireland, and was deactivated by the unidentified controller (s) after

Fastway initiated proceedings in late April.

The account featured abusive tweets suggesting Fastway drivers were “incompetent, with no regard for customers and their packages”, drivers had Covid-19, and parts of the country were “holes” and “non-essential areas” to which Fastway would not deliver.

Twitter’s lawyer, David Holland SC, had said it was “mute” on the application and takes seriously both freedom of expression and the principles of law but would comply if the court made the order.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Senan Allen ordered Twitter to disclose, within seven days, such information as it has relating to the identity of those who created and/or controlled the account on condition that information is not used for any purpose other than to redress the wrongs complained of in this case.

The judge said, whatever the initial impression of the parody site might have been, he considered that no one who read the entries posted by @fastwayIRE “could sensibly have believed” the account was operated by the plaintiff companies – Parcel Connect Ltd, trading as Fastway Couriers and A & G Couriers Ltd.

For example, the postings in response to apparently genuine enquiries about when parcel deliveries might be expected suggested parcels had been “flung over the rainbow” and into fields, left in caves for a few weeks, and the contents eaten by drivers, he said.