According to the ruling, the prosecutor’s office should first asses the content of specific comments and determine whether they are insulting or defamatory, and only then, if necessary, demand disclosure of commenter data from the website editors.
The case concerns the local Polish news website przełom.pl. The prosecutor’s office requested that the editors disclose IP addresses and other data of users who commented on stories published by the website.
This provision met with a complaint from the website's editor-in-chief. After several attempts to lodge a legal complaint agains the prosecutor's request and a provisional court's ruling that a legal appeal was not admissible, the website was successful in having its appeal against the request heard in court.
The regional court in Chrzanów confirmed that the website’s administrator has the right to question the validity of the decision to require disclosure of IP addresses and other data of users who leave comments on the website. The case will be reviewed.
In explaining its decision, the court said: "The prosecutor should firstly apply to the data administrator for disclosure of the content of comments. Then, they should indicate which of them are insulting, defamatory or degrading. Only after that can the authors be identified and the scope of disclosure of data of forum’s users defined."
Must have a reason
There are two main conclusions resulting from that case. First, the court confirmed that the website administrator has the right to question in prosecutor’s demand to reveal IP addresses of users who comment on the website. Second, law enforcement agencies must have legitimate reasons to need that data, and they should verify the content of comments before accessing it.
"In fact, critical comments do not usually break the law, and people who report suspected criminal activity do so only because they want to know the identity of the commenting person. In these situations, law enforcement agencies should not be allowed to apply for data disclosure," says Dorota Głowacka, a lawyer at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.
