The Federal Court of Australia has handed down a useful and important ruling in the case of Yemini v Twitter International Company.
The written reasons are short, but are likely to have a long-lasting impact on running defamation cases against social media platforms.
Avraham Yemini is an Australian-based journalist for the Canadian news and opinion website, Rebel News.
He filed an originating application seeking an order under r 7.22 of the Federal Court Rules 2011 (Cth) for preliminary discovery by Twitter International Company and Twitter Inc, the corporate entities through which the American microblogging and social networking service ‘Twitter’ is principally operated.
Mr Yemini sought production of documents that would help him identify an anonymous person or persons who published allegedly defamatory content about Mr Yemini on the Twitter platform, so that he could then commence proceedings against that person or persons.
The Twitter handle was @PRGuy17.
The evidence supporting Mr Yemini’s application set out the bases on which he believed that one or both of the Twitter entities had information about the identity of the anonymous Twitter user and the attempts Mr Yemini had made to identify the anonymous user to date.
The application for preliminary discovery, under r 7.22 of the Rules, was based on a cause of action in defamation.
An application for preliminary discovery under r 7.22 of the Rules is a proceeding in which the Federal Court of Australia has jurisdiction.
On the basis of the affidavit filed in support of the application for preliminary discovery, the Judge was satisfied Mr Yemini had a prima facie case for the production of the documents he sought.
An order granting leave for Mr Yemini to effect service on the prospective respondents via international registered post was made.