Twitter Willing To Give Up Injunction Breakers’ Details

Twitter has confirmed it is prepared to hand over the details of those users who recently breached super injunctions, if “legally required”.

The admission comes amid ongoing public debate about the strict libel and privacy laws in this country.

When asked about the escalating dispute over gagging orders in the UK, Twitter’s newly appointed general manager of European operations, Tony Wang was quoted as saying in the Guardian newspaper: “Platforms should have responsibility not to defend the user, but to protect that user’s right to defend him or herself.”

If Legally Required

“If we’re legally required to turn over user information, to the extent that we can, we want to notify the user involved, let them know and let them exercise their rights under their own jurisdiction,” he added.

“That’s not to say that they will ultimately prevail, that’s not to say that law enforcement doesn’t get the information they need, but what it does do is take that process into the court of law and let it play out there,” he was reported as saying.

Earlier this month a Twitter user used the microblogging website to flout British privacy laws by tweeting a list of celebrities who – it was claimed – had taken out injunctions. That leak was designed to discredit the trend for celebrities taking out injunctions to protect their privacy. However, the list did have inaccuracies, after falsely naming a number of celebrities, including socialite Jemima Khan and TV presenter Gabby Logan, as being protected by injunctions.

And last weekend thousands of Twitter users tweeted the name of married premiership footballer Ryan Giggs. Previously referred to as CTB, he was identified on Monday by Liberal Democrat John Hemming, who used parliamentary privilege to identify him in parliament.

Giggs had responded by to the initial leak with legal action against Twitter, demanding it reveal information on the “persons unknown regarding the publication of information on Twitter accounts”.

TweetDeck Acquisition

Meanwhile Twitter has officially confirmed that it has closed the long rumoured acquisition of popular British-based Twitter client, TweetDeck.

The news was officially confirmed by TweetDeck’s founder Iain Dodsworth, who announced the news on the company blog, where he proclaimed that “this is a huge win for us all”. The papers were signed on Monday although the news had not been officially confirmed until now.

“The past three years have been an epic journey, with many highs and lows, accompanied by the constant thrill of never really knowing what to expect next,” wrote Dodsworth. “We’ve grown from one team member and a single user, to a team of fifteen and a user-base of millions.”

“Change may well be inevitable, but we remain the same team, staying in London, with the same focus and products, and now with the support and resources to allow us to grow and take on even bigger challenges,” he added.