subject: Tweeting and libel [print this page] Tweeting and libel Tweeting and libel
The ex- Indian Premier League commissioner, Lalit Modi, is one of the most interesting and controversial figures in cricket today. He also tweets frequently, and not too long ago claimed that New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns fixes matches on his twitter.
Cairns answered not with a tweet but a libel lawsuit. The incredibly well-respected libel judge who took the case made the decision (after consulting two authorities on what specifically Twitter is) that the libel case could proceed.
At present, the odds of being held legally liable for a tweet are getting higher every day. Gareth Compton, a Birmingham councillor, tweeted a "glib comment" about an independent columnist in which he stated in response to criticism from the said journalist "can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a blessing, really."
Afua Hirsch, in her legal blog for the Guardian, blogs that police arrested him on charges of incitement to murder. Pretty serious stuff, and it is challenging to imagine that Mr Compton would really have tried to convince people to murder a journalist on Twitter; if for no other reason than it makes the prosecution's job significantly less difficult.
There are significant problems with holding people legally responsible for literally what they tweet, and they are related to the problems of transmission that plague every person who interacts via text or forms of internet chatting. Internet communication lacks broader context, tone of voice, facial expressions, hand gestures, and eye contact which means that determining the precise meaning of a tweet can be difficult.
To put it another way creating objective, legal standards moderated by impartial mediators for determining the meaning of tweets is no easy task. These standards will be created simply out of necessity as mediums like Twitter become more popular. Until clearstandards are present, however, it might be wise to watch what you tweet.
