What happens when someone subpoenas Cloudflare to unmask a blogger? This...
A former deputy mayor in the UK has subpoenaed Cloudflare in the US to discover the identity of an anonymous British political blogger.
Initially, the network infrastructure giant gave the blog owner, who pays Cloudflare to optimize their WordPress site, until the end of this week to file a legal challenge in the States against the subpoena, or have their personal details handed over to the ex-official. On Tuesday, the San Francisco-based corporation agreed to delay disclosure until January 29.
The subpoena was granted in California by federal district Judge James Donato in October based on a complaint filed by Daniel Maycock, the former Deputy Mayor of Tamworth, a town in Staffordshire, England.
Maycock had asked the American court to compel Cloudflare to identify the operator of the website Debunking Tamworth, claiming an article it published online the year before contained false and defamatory statements that have hindered Maycock's future academic and political opportunities and have inflicted emotional distress.
The ex-politician made his claim under 28 U.S.C. §1782, a statute that aims to simplify the discovery process in the US for litigation in foreign courts. The use of the law has increased substantially in recent years, according to Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
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