Reposted from DLA Piper’s bulletin from the Media & Sport Group
Editorial Team: Nick Fitzpatrick, Duncan Calow and Patrick Mitchell
The social network and blogging site, Twitter, has been forced to hand over details of its users in a landmark ruling.
South Tyneside council brought the case before the US Courts, seeking to identify a blogger who criticised councillors and officials.
It is believed to be the first time the site has been forced to provide details about users in the UK. The case could now open the gates to a flood of further cases after controversy surrounding gagging orders being breached online by Twitter users. As reported in our May newsletter here, the footballer Ryan Giggs was named in parliament as the footballer at the centre of a Twitter row after details emerged of an injunction he had obtained to keep private details of an alleged affair. Lawyers acting for the footballer have experienced difficulties in obtaining details of Twitter users, due to the fact that Twitter is based in California and not within the normal jurisdiction of the English courts.
South Tyneside council went directly to the US, where the 9th Circuit Court has jurisdiction over Twitter, giving Twitter no alternative but to hand over the information because they were required to do so under Californian law.
On Radio 4’s Law in Action programme, Attorney General Dominic Grieve stated that people who use internet sites such as Twitter to breach privacy injunctions could face action, warning users: “I will take action if I think that my intervention is necessary in the public interest, to maintain the rule of law, proportionate and will achieve an end of upholding the rule of law. It is not something, however, I particularly want to do.”