Twitter is not opposing an application for High Court orders requiring it to reveal the holder of an account that posted allegedly defamatory information about Portugal-based football club Benfica.
The owners and operators of SL Benfica, Sport Lisboa E Benfica-Futebol, Sociedade Anonima Desportiva, are asking the court to order Twitter’s European headquarters in Dublin to reveal the identity of the person or people behind the “@o_tal_pulha” account.
Portugal’s most successful football club claims the account posted defamatory comments between October and February this year, including allegations of financial and other irregularities against it. The club denies the claims made.
On Thursday, Twitter International Unlimited Co’s lawyer, Andrea Mulligan, said her client was not contesting the terms of the injunctions sought, provided the court found such injunctions were appropriate.
Mr Justice Brian O’Moore said the “substance” of the orders appeared to be justified. However, he asked for further details about the steps expected to be taken in Portugal after receiving the requested information.
He adjourned the case for a week, stating his intention to issue final orders then.
Earlier, the court was told the football club believes “o_tal_pulha” means “vile”, an ironic reference to a description used by former club president Luis Filipe Vieira to describe a section of fans who criticized the failure his to attend games when the team was not performing well and he was recovering from Covid-19.
Benfica says the account has a significant amount of confidential material, which it believes ultimately stems from a 2017 hacking incident of the club’s IT system.
Three people were indicted for illegally publishing Benfica’s private emails stemming from that incident. The trial, which began in September, is expected to last three months.
Benfica also brought civil proceedings against several parties who were ordered to pay 1.6 million euros in damages.
The o_tal_pulha posts began in April 2021 after Benfica successfully served takedown notices on other hacked information that appeared online.
It was claimed that Twitter refused to remove the posts when requested by Benfica.
The court heard on Thursday that the social media company neither agreed nor objected to the High Court orders sought by the club.
