They're coming for you Mr. Monkey!

Twitter forced to hand over personal information after council launches legal action using taxpayers' money

By Jack Doyle
May 29, 2011Shock: Councillor Ahmed Khan was horrified after he was told by Twitter that personal information would be handed over to the council

Twitter has been forced to hand over the details of users of its website in a landmark legal ruling.

The case was brought by a council seeking to uncover the identity of a blogger who criticised officials and councillors.

South Tyneside Council went to the U.S. courts to force Twitter to reveal the person behind the ‘Mr Monkey’ account.

The case could have widespread implications for users of the social networking site, and lead to a flood of actions by lawyers trying to find out the names of anonymous posters in order to sue them.

It could But criticsalso have implications in the case of Ryan Giggs, whose lawyers have demanded Twitter reveal which users named him as the footballer with a privacy injunction over his affair with model Imogen Thomas.

attacked the council for taking the case all the way to the Californian courts to defend the personal reputations of councillors and officials.

The bill to taxpayers is thought to be tens of thousands of pounds. Charlotte Linacre, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers will be concerned at the price they are having to pay for the council to take legal action that protects some individual staff by attempting to silence others.

‘At a time when South Tyneside Council needs to reduce spending and prioritise to meet the needs of residents, it seems simply irresponsible to be spending money in the Californian courts.’
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The council was awarded a legal order last month, requiring Twitter to reveal the name, address, email address and telephone number of the users behind five accounts.

Council lawyers said the person behind the accounts had posted ‘false and defamatory’ statements about three councillors, including the council’s Labour leader, Iain Malcolm, and a senior official.

Implications: Ryan Giggs could successfully get information about people who named him as having an extramarital affair with Imogen Thomas

A council spokesman said: ‘The council has a duty of care to protect its employees and as this blog contains damaging claims about council officers, legal action is being taken to identify those responsible.’

One of the individuals named in the legal order, councillor David Potts, claimed the action was justified. He added: ‘We have a duty to look after our employees. It is not a case of politicians not wanting to be criticised.

‘I don’t mind being criticised. I’ve got a thick skin. But this blog is perverted, sleazy, sick, filthy and is full of sordid lies.’