RSS
Twitter
Football Player Threatens To Sue Impostor On Twitter
from the at-least-he's-going-after-the-right-target dept
When Tony La Russa sued Twitter because there was a user impersonating him on the site (though, clearly labeled as being fake), we pointed out that La Russa was targeting the wrong party. At first we were afraid the same thing was happening when Digg was running a headline that Miami Dolphins' player Davone Bess was going to sue Twitter over an impostor. Fortunately, it looks like whoever wrote the Digg headline got it wrong. The original story suggests that Bess isn't going to sue Twitter, but whoever set up the fake Twitter account. Of course, even that is probably pretty pointless. Why not just alert Twitter, have the account disabled and be done with it?
Reader Comments
(Flattened / Threaded)
I've heard from other celebrities that Twitter is completely non-responsive with regards to shutting down impostors. Peyton Manning had a thing against them recently. Not saying a lawsuit is necessarily the answer, but "letting Twitter handle it" is also not effective.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Twitter Handled It
The fake profile was removed.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
"Football Player Threatens To Sue Impostor On Twitter"
A on-line suit against an on-line crime seems about right. Now could some one explain where he is going to get an on-line judge and an on-line jury and what he is going to do with on-line Gold Farmer currency.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Re:
The internet comes with a built in jury. They're called Anonymous Cowards.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Actually, this is one of those times where the lawsuit is aimed correctly - he wants to sue the person running the fake account more than the service. The service should be only too happy to help.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Good luck!
The Internet is built on anonymity. He'd need a court order to get the IP address of the current account holder, and as we've seen, IP addresses are not the end all/be all of identifying people online.
PLUS! Creating false users accounts might be against the Twitter TOS but is not necessarily against the law. The court order would have to be issued once harm or law breaking has been established.
Who knows though? Perhaps Devone Bess has a trademark filed for his name...but it's doubtful.
But I'm not a lawyer. So, I could be entirely wrong here (it wouldn't be the first time).
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Re: Good luck!
Actually it IS against the law to creat false user accounts that break a sites TOS. Just ask Lori Drew.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Why don't we put all these whiny famous people on a blacklist and make them pay and prove identity to use any any social networking account. I think some use a verified stamp of approval but why not make them all do this?
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Why to sue?
Um, fraud? Reputational damage? What was the argument for not suing the imposter, again?
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Add Your Comment