The Nuremberg District Court has issued an injunction prohibiting the blocking of a Twitter account based on the tweet “Current reason: Urgent election recommendation for all AfD voters. Be sure to sign the ballot paper. ;-)” has been blocked.

Since the signature on the ballot papers would invalidate it (there is a secret ballot in Germany), Twitter saw in the tweet an unauthorized election manipulation and blocked the account completely. There has been no response to a warning.

In its decision, the court makes it clear that the fundamental right to freedom of expression outweighs Twitter’s right to enforce its own terms and conditions. This would apply in particular to satire (associated with a smilie) as in the present case. Whether the guidelines for avoiding election manipulation were thus effectively integrated into the contract between Twitter and the user could therefore be left unanswered.

In the meantime, there are some judgments and decisions to block the social media account. See, for example, the Berlin Regional Court, or the Cologne Higher Regional Court.