Australian journalist Avi Yemeni has won the right to serve Twitter’s Ireland office with papers forcing the tech giant to reveal the identity of a person operating a troll account which allegedly defamed him and others.
Yemeni alleges that the troll account, operating with the Twitter handle ‘@PRGuy17‘, is connected to Victorian Premier Dan Andrews, or his office, and possibly funded with taxpayer dollars.
Yemeni asked the court to order Twitter to hand over documents that would help him and his legal team identify @PRGUY17. Once identified, Yemeni intends to sue him/her for defamation. If his Dan Andrews allegations are true, it would likely cause the Premier significant political embarrassment.
The court agreed, and also gave the journalist permission to serve the documents outside its territorial jurisdiction on Twitter’s head office in Dublin, Ireland.
It remains to be seen whether Twitter will comply with the orders.
Yemeni has generated a large and vocal following on social media and YouTube for his ‘on the ground’ reporting from the Melbourne lockdowns and subsequent public protests.
A real journalist.
I have been defaming that child killing ex Israeli sniper for years! why hasn’t he come after me?