Twitter users and the courts go to war over footballer's injunction

By artappraiser on Fri, 05/20/2011 - 5:08pm |

By Owen Bowcott and Josh Halliday, Guardian.co.uk, May 20, 2011

Attempts to identify a famous footballer hiding behind a privacy injunction have spiralled into an online battle over freedom of speech, as internet users responded to high court action by repeatedly naming him on Twitter.

The high court granted a search order against the US-based microblogging site on Friday as the lord chief justice, Lord Judge, warned that "modern technology was totally out of control" and called for those who "peddle lies" on the internet to be fined. The attempt to compel Twitter to identify those responsible for the breaches comes after a number of its users earlier this month purported to reveal the name of the player who allegedly had an affair with the model Imogen Thomas....

URL:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/may/20/twitter-users-courts-footballer-injunction