Twitter users who breach injunctions risk legal action, warns attorney general

Users whose tweets breach gagging orders could face fines or even jail for contempt of court Twitter users who breach privacy injunctions could face legal action for contempt of court, the attorney general has warned. In the starkest warning yet to users of the micro-blogging site who breach so-called “gagging orders”, Dominic Grieve said individuals could be prosecuted and added that he would take action if necessary if he thought the law was not being upheld. Twitter played a key role in the exposure of footballer Ryan Giggs’s alleged affair with former Big Brother contestant Imogen Thomas, after MP John Hemming used parliamentary privilege to argue that it was not possible to prosecute the thousands of users who had named Giggs. One of the main difficulties in bringing a prosecution against Twitter is that it is a US-based company and is therefore outside the jurisdiction of the UK courts. However, Grieve said that users of the micro-blogging site in England and Wales may find themselves subject to contempt proceedings. He warned that they are not exempt from the requirement to observe privacy orders. In a pre-recorded interview for Radio 4′s Law in Action , which will be broadcast on Tuesday, Grieve said that while it is usually up to those who have taken out injunctions to enforce them he will take action himself, although it is not something he particularly wants to do. Grieve said: “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.” He also said proceedings could be brought against newspapers that dropped heavy hints about the identity of a person protected by an injunction. People found to have deliberately breached court orders can be fined or even imprisoned for contempt of court. Twitter has been used to name a number of celebrities who have taken out gagging orders. A senior Twitter executive has said it will notify its users before handing their personal information to UK authorities seeking to prosecute them over alleged breaches of privacy injunctions. “Platforms should have responsibility not to defend the user, but to protect that user’s right to defend him or herself,” Tony Wang, Twitter’s general manager of European operations, told a conference shortly after Giggs was named by the service’s users. In May, as the battle between national newspapers and high court judges over privacy injunctions intensified, Grieve announced that he was setting up a joint parliamentary committee to examine the complex related issues of privacy, injunctions, the regulation of the internet and the role of the Press Complaints Commission, saying the current position was not sustainable. The committee is due to report in the autumn. It was during the Commons debate following Grieve’s announcement that Hemming named Giggs. Later in May lawyers acting for the woman alleged to have had an affair with the former bank boss Sir Fred Goodwin failed in an attempt to launch contempt of court proceedings against the Daily Mail . The high court declined to refer the Associated Newspapers title to the attorney general over an article it published. •

Posted by on June 7, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.