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”
Yiannopoulos made the data request, also known as a “Subject Access Request”, to Twitter on the 25th of July. According to European law, Twitter must respond to the request within 21 days of it being filed, returning Yiannopoulos with all of the personal data that they have on him.
This would include the reason as to why Twitter permanently suspended Yiannopoulos in July, as well as the motive for removing his verification before that.
You can read Yiannopoulos’ original letter to Twitter in full below:
Milo Yiannopoulos – Subject Access Request by yiannopoulos on Scribd
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.
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