Either Twitter is desperate or they have some seriously incompetent lawyers handling @nero’s data request.:
Twitter attempted to dodge Milo Yiannopoulos’ data request by falsely claiming that he lives in the United States of America and is therefore ineligible to receive the information.
“Twitter International Company provides the Twitter Services to individuals who live outside the United States of America. We understand that you live in the United States,” said Twitter in their reply today, despite the fact that Yiannopoulos has permanent residence in the United Kingdom and remains a citizen there.
“As a result, we are not a data controller in respect of your personal data. Consequently, we will return your postal order, in the sum of €6.35, to you.”
Yiannopoulos replied shortly after, stating:
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
I do not live in the United States. I am a permanent UK resident at the address listed on my letter, and a citizen of the United Kingdom.
You are clearly prevaricating by waiting until now to make this statement as opposed to making simple inquiries as to my country of residence.
Twitter has the choice of waiving the EUR 6.35 or paying the shipping and handling costs of sending a new money order, which will be EUR 7.
As a matter of interest, given that you have my UK address, where did you send the money order back to? To dispatch it to a UK address seems quite at odds with your proposition that I am a resident of the United States.
You have 21 days from the date of the original Subject Access Request to reply in full. This situation has not changed. I look forward to receiving the information requested within the time frame permitted by law.
Yours
Milo Yiannopoulos”
Seriously, who advised them to try to play that sort of ridiculous game? I’ve noticed that American companies often fail to take foreign courts very seriously, as if they assume they are merely some sort of state-level court that can be beaten at the federal level. No wonder so many of them end up paying massive fines.
I know for a fact that Milo’s been in London recently anyhow. It’s just a bizarre, time-wasting response by Twitter.