German official dedicates legal win against Twitter to Fauci

BERLIN (AP) — A German official who won a defamation case against Twitter this week dedicated his legal victory on Thursday to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert targeted by the microblogging site's new owner, Elon Musk.

A Frankfurt regional court ruled Wednesday that Twitter has to remove false or defamatory tweets about Michael Blume, who is the southwest German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg’s commissioner against antisemitism. Crucially, the court made clear that the order applies not only to identical posts but also to any that are substantially similar.

Blume told The Associated Press that he wanted to dedicate the successful outcome of his case to Fauci, to send a signal that Twitter “can't simply let people be trolled and stalked for years.”

“When even Elon Musk himself lets trolls loose on a scientist, then that's disturbing,” he said. “I believe that's just wrong.”

Musk recently called for Fauci, a leading figure in the U.S. government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to be prosecuted. His tweet was warmly applauded by users opposed to the U.S. pandemic response, with some posting images of Fauci wearing prison garb or in a coffin.

Blume had taken Twitter to court in Germany after users of the platform suggested he had “a closeness to pedophilia,” of committing adultery, and being involved in “antisemitic scandals,” according to a court statement. Blume rejects all those claims as false and states that he acted after some Twitter users targeted his wife and children, too.

Judges concluded that Twitter should have removed those comments as soon as it was notified. While the descriptions of Blume as antisemitic could be covered by free speech laws, the court ruled that in this case they weren't intended to contribute to public debate...