Be careful what you tweet
Posted by seo Lalit Modi, the previous Indian Premier League commissioner, is an incredibly controversial and central figure in international cricket. In a recent tweet, he accused New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns of fixing matches.
Cairns answered not over the internet but in the courtroom. The incredibly well-respected libel judge, one whois much respected by IBB Solicitors, who took the case decided (after contacting two authorities on what specifically Twitter is) that the libel case could proceed.
Presently, the odds of being held legally liable for a tweet are getting increasing every day. Gareth Compton, a Birmingham councillor, tweeted a “glib comment” about an independent columnist in which he said 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 put him in jail on charges of incitement to murder. Pretty career ruining stuff, and it is challenging to imagine that Mr Compton would really have tried to convince people to kill a journalist on Twitter; if for no other reason than it makes the prosecution’s job considerably less difficult.
There are significant problems with holding individuals legally responsible for literally what they tweet, and they are related to the problems of transmission that plague every person who interacts on the internet. Internet communication lacks broader context, tone of voice, facial expressions, hand gestures, and eye contact which means that deciding the meaning of a tweet can be difficult.
Or at the very least, it can be hard to establish objective, legal standards for figuring out what is meant by text found on the internet. Given the ever growing significance of the social media, the issue will be settled out of simple necessity. Until clearcriteria exist, however, IBB Solicitors advises you to watch what you tweet.
