Vox published on its account days before the start of the electoral campaign for the Parliament of Catalonia , called for February 14, 2021, the following tweet referring to the population of Maghreb origin that lives there: « They represent approximately 0.2% and are responsible for 93% of the complaints. The majority are from the Maghreb. It is Catalonia that is leaving unanimous indolence and complicity with imported crime. Only VOX remains! #StopIslamization » Twitter informed VOX that it was limiting its account for eight days, from January 28 at 1:10 p.m. to February 4 at 1:13 p.m. , five days coinciding with part of the electoral campaign, upon understanding that it had broken the rules of the aforementioned social network, which prevent threatening, harassing or encouraging violence against other people for reasons of their race, ethnic origin, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religion, age, disability or illness.
During this time VOX was able to interact with other users through direct messages from its account and its previous publications could be consulted by the rest of the users. The Court highlights that the Phone Number Data relationship between Twitter and VOX is subject to private law governed by clauses “that VOX now considers abusive and unilateral but that it accepted when opening its account.” He adds that these clauses cannot be annulled by the JEC or the Chamber and that since it is a private contractual relationship, if it had occurred outside the electoral period, the disagreement over the disputed limitation would have been aired before the civil jurisdiction.
Tweet that was banned by the social network Twitter (Photo: Twitter) The ruling, presented by Judge José Luis Requero , indicates that what justifies the intervention of the Electoral Administration is that this limitation occurs during the electoral period and affects a candidacy. Since this was a conflict between individuals, the Central Electoral Board could have inhibited itself, but it understood that it was within its jurisdiction to intervene and exercise its generic power to ensure that the electoral process was developed in accordance with the principles of transparency, objectivity and equality. The Chamber considers that the JEC prudently exercised its powers to organize the electoral process , carrying out a trial of reasonableness and proportionality, which did not prevent the user from suing Twitter in civil jurisdiction.