A Dutch village linked to child satanic crimes on Twitter has lost its legal battle against the social network, which goes to great lengths to prevent the spread of conspiracy theories, according to a court ruling on Tuesday. The municipality of Bodegraven-Reuwijk in the western Netherlands took Twitter to court in September, asking it to delete all tweets linking the village to pedo-satanist crimes.
The “Bodegraven Story” was shared by three men on several social networks between January and June 2021. One of them claimed to have been a witness and victim of satanic ritual abuse and the murder of young children. They called to come to the village to lay flowers and leave messages on the graves “victims”to which dozens of people responded.
In 2021, the village sued three men who were convicted of deleting baseless stories online. The municipality of Bodegraven-Reuwijk, however, felt that Twitter was not doing enough to prevent the spread of the story and requested that all tweets responding to it be deleted. Twitter: “It has now done enough to remove illegal content about the Bodegraven story from its platform.”However, the Hague Court said after the interlocutory proceedings:
“Micha Cat”, account at the center of the case
The social network has permanently suspended the account that spread the tweets “defamatory” and also deleted all retweets from that account, he noted. According to Dutch media, this is the score “Micha Kat”a person who accused several Dutch personalities of being part of it “childish ring” and is currently blocked. Twitter: “It cannot undertake to remove on its own initiative and therefore without the request of the municipality all the posts in which the term ‘Bodegraven’ is associated with child abuse.”the court ruled.
Therefore, the municipality must rely on the “notice and withdrawal procedure”. flag tweets it deems illegal and ask Twitter to delete them. “Not everything is illegal, and a good filter can’t be put in place in this case, according to Twitter.” clarified the court. The social network argued that such a filter would affect free speech by removing content that denies, for example, the existence of a pedo-satanist network.
Source: Le Figaro
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.