Monday, May 30, 2011

Twitter Released Information to Court

South Tyneside Council says Twitter has released information after it acted in a US court to identify a Twitter user behind allegedly libellous statements.

The council went to court in California after three councillors and an official complained they were libelled in a blog called "Mr Monkey".

Council spokesman Paul Robinson said information had been disclosed by Twitter to its lawyers.

This was "being analysed by technical experts", he added.


Independent South Shields councillor Ahmed Khan is suspected by some of being the author of the blog, which has made a series of unfounded allegations against council leaders.

Mr Khan, who denies being the author, said he was first contacted by Twitter in April about a subpoena lodged with the Californian court.

He said he was told he had 21 days to lodge a legal argument against the action, otherwise the details would be released.

The councillor said he was told by Twitter that the information included IP identities, mobile phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

Mr Khan said the firm had also released 68 pages of other details, of which he said: "I can't decipher most of it."

He said he believed the council had been given the details of five Twitter accounts, two of which were his.

Mr Khan said: "I'm the kind of person who will tell you face-to-face what I think. I have no need to use an anonymous blog."

Mr Khan admitted being a critic of some council policies, but described the situation as "Orwellian".

He also also criticised the amount of money the council had spent on the case.

Mr Robinson denied press reports that the council's court action had cost "hundreds of thousands of pounds".

"We cannot confirm the cost of this legal action because it is ongoing, but it has so far cost less than £75,000," he said.

The reason for the lawsuit?
Simple. The Mr Monkey blog had made a number of accusations against the council's Labour leader Iain Malcolm, as well as David Potts, the former Conservative leader who now serves as an Independent councillor, Labour councillor Anne Walsh, and Rick O'Farrell, the council's head of enterprise and regeneration.

Source;
BBC

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