Al-Ahmed v. Twitter, Inc.

Background

Twitter filed a motion to seal materials connected to its motion to dismiss. Al-Ahmed did not object to Twitter’s request to redact several categories of information, including the name and identifying information of a Twitter employee declarant, lists and identification numbers associated with Twitter accountholders, a private message sent from Al-Ahmed’s suspended Arabic-language Twitter account, and Al-Ahmed’s telephone number and email address appearing in public materials.

Court’s Analysis

The court held that protecting the Twitter employee from possible reprisal was a sufficiently important interest to overcome the presumption that court filings should be publicly accessible. The court also held that the privacy interests of third-party accountholders and Al-Ahmed’s privacy interest in his contact information outweighed public access.

The court reached a different conclusion about the private message. Although the message could be embarrassing to Al-Ahmed, the court held that avoiding embarrassment was not a sufficiently important interest to overcome the presumption of public access.

Disposition

The court granted in part and denied in part Twitter’s motion to seal. It granted the requests to redact the employee declarant’s identifying information, account identification numbers, and the specified contact information. It denied the request to redact the private message. The court ordered Twitter to refile its motion to dismiss and supporting exhibits consistently with the order by November 9, 2020, and directed the clerk to terminate the open motion at docket entry 35. The order did not decide the motion to dismiss itself.