In December last year, an Australian court broke new ground by serving court documents on Facebook. Now, the High Court in the UK has issued its first injunction via Twitter this week. The Court said the social website and micro-blogging service was the best way to reach an anonymous Tweeter who had been impersonating the plaintiff, Donal Blaney. Blaney runs a blog called Blaney’s Blarney, and also owns a legal firm called Griffin Law. However, Blaney does not run the Twitter account “blaneysblarney”, and so sought legal action to prevent the Twitter user from continuing to impersonate him. The order says the Twitter user is breaching the copyright of Mr Blaney. Meanwhile, we are still surprised that the court was able to do so in less than 140 characters!
Impersonating people or organizations contravenes Twitter’s terms of service and users who do not wish to take legal action can contact Twitter directly.
