McAlpine libel: 20 tweeters including Sally Bercow pursued for damages

guardian.co.uk

2 points·Cbasedlifeform··2 comments

Jesus, this is a dangerous and slippery slope. Yes the various tweets e.g. by Monbiot were suggestive or perhaps insinuating something, but they did not actually allege Lord M was guilty of any crime.

If this goes ahead then Twitter may as well just shut down as any errant or flippant comment about a politician or celebrity could lead to a lawsuit.

> If this goes ahead then Twitter may as well just shut down as any errant or flippant comment about a politician or celebrity could lead to a lawsuit.

People, not Twitter, are responsible for the tweets they make. Twitter isn't being chased, the individuals are. (Twitter's involved so that addresses can be found.)

That seems reasonable. Say what you like, but take responsibility for it.

Sally Bercow tweeted: “Why is Lord McApline trending? innocent face” - this was shortly after a news report (later found to be incorrect) about a high profile Tory politician pedophile. (Lord McAlpine is not a pedophile. The news programme was erroneous.) That's a clear insinuation against a totally innocent man.

Other people named him and called him a pedophile directly.

He's going after people with substantial numbers of followers. Anyone else is being asked to donate £5 to a children's charity.

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