Tweeters Beware: Twibel

Tweeters Beware: Twibel

Last week Colin Elsbury, a Caerphilly County Councillor, was ordered to pay damages in what is believed to be the first UK libel action for posting a libellous comment on Twitter.  Although suing over the contents of Tweets is common in the United States this is understood to be the first such case in the UK.   

Mr Elsbury tweeted that his challenger in an upcoming by-election had been “forcibly removed” by police from a polling station.  Although this turned out to be false and Mr Elsbury tried to correct his post claiming that “It was a genuine case of mistaken identity”, Mr Talbot took him to court.

The High Court in Cardiff ordered Mr Elsbury to pay £3,000 in damages together with legal costs of around £50,000 after he acknowledged that he defamed Mr Talbot.  In addition, he has been ordered to post an apology on Twitter.

Mr Talbot’s solicitors told the court that “The amount of compensation wasn’t an issue, it was the protection of Mr Talbot’s reputation.  The implication of the Twitter statement was that Mr Talbot had been forcibly removed for criminal or disreputable conduct”. 

This case will no doubt act as a warning that everything posted on Twitter is subject to libel laws.  Further, it suggests that correcting an error in a subsequent posting is unlikely to be an adequate defence.

Potentially, this case has opened the floodgates to claims of libel on Twitter or “Twibels” as they are known in the United States.