Judge orders Facebook to release users’ names to officials seeking to sue them

HALIFAX – A Nova Scotia judge has ordered Facebook to release the identities of users behind two profiles to municipal officials seeking to sue them for defamation. The two account holders made disparaging comments on a Facebook group called “Taxpayers of Richmond County, NS” about Richmond Coun. Steve Sampson and county administrator Warren Olsen. Sampson and Olsen believe those names – Jake Sampson and Jim Davis – are pseudonyms “and want to find out who is actually behind the Facebook postings so they can be sued,” according to a decision released Monday by the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. Facebook itself took no position on the issue, while neither account holder responded to attempts to contact them, Justice Michael Wood said.