Football star's plan to sue Twitter sparks fresh deluge of jokes and mickey-taking online

 

 

By Daily Mail Reporter

 

 

 

• Player's name being mentioned 16 times a minute
  

Speculation over the identity of the professional footballer who is taking legal action against Twitter reached new heights today as hundreds of users of the micro-blogging site claimed to know his name.

The married star, who is referred to as CTB in court documents, is said to have had a ‘sexual relationship’ with Big Brother’s Imogen Thomas.

He obtained an order preventing The Sun newspaper from revealing his name last month and has now launched proceedings against Twitter and ‘persons unknown’ after users claimed to have identified a number of individuals said to have taken out gagging orders.

But the legal bid led to one player’s name being mentioned on Twitter at a rate of up to 16 times a minute.

 

 

The anonymous footballer who has an injunction against reality TV star Imogen Thomas (pictured yesterday) and The Sun launched his legal action on May 18

 

 

 

Also users incensed by his action began changing their profiles with his image and created fake accounts using the names of other Premier League footballers.

One joke doing the rounds was ‘(name of player) is suing Twitter, I can’t Imogen why’.

Secretive: The married Premier League football star is suing Twitter

 

Lawyers at Schillings, who represent CTB, said: ‘An application has been made to obtain limited information concerning the unlawful use of Twitter by a small number of individuals who may have breached a court order.’

The impact of Twitter has fuelled the privacy debate and highlighted the problems associated with enforcing injunctions. The list of celebrities has reportedly been seen by an estimated two million people.

Lawyer Mark Stephens, who does not represent anybody involved in the case, said documents were filed at London’s High Court on Wednesday.

Schillings said the footballer’s action did not amount to suing Twitter.

While the player could potentially sue the ‘persons unknown’, he is unlikely to be able to take the same action against Twitter which does not fall within British jurisdiction, Mr Stephens said.

‘If you want to sue Twitter, you have to go to San Francisco,” he added, referring to the company’s headquarters in the US.

‘Any attempt to enforce English privacy or libel law will not be accepted in the USA.’

A Twitter spokesman said: ‘We are unable to comment.’

 

His groundbreaking legal action came on the same day that top judges sought to strengthen privacy laws and even threatened to stop MPs and Lords discussing gagging orders in Parliament.

The footballer’s action will test if judges determined to censor British newspapers can also gag the electronic media and those who post illicit information on them.

It also raises the question of whether Twitter, which is based in San Francisco and has no base in the UK, can be brought to heel by the British courts.

http://reznuk.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/recently-and-suddenly/

 

someone out there is bored :laugh3:

 

http://twitter.com/MrRyanGiggs/status/72082695190102017

someone out there is bored :laugh3:

 

http://twitter.com/MrRyanGiggs/status/72082695190102017

 

It's already been removed.:(

that's a shame, Imogen won't be able to reply to the tweet, "Fancy a shag?" :laugh3:

Around 75,000 Twitter users have named Manchester United's Ryan Giggs

 

Ryan Giggs named by MP as injunction footballer

 

A married footballer named on Twitter as having an injunction over an alleged affair with a reality TV star has been named in Parliament by Lib Dem MP John Hemming as Ryan Giggs.

 

Mr Hemming named him during an urgent Commons question on privacy orders. Using parliamentary privilege to break the court order, he said it would not be practical to imprison the 75,000 Twitter users who had named the player.

 

Earlier the High Court again ruled that the injunction should not be lifted. Parliamentary privilege protects MPs and peers from prosecution for statements made in the House of Commons or House of Lords.

 

In court, Mr Justice Eady rejected a fresh application by Sun publisher News Group Newspapers to discharge the privacy injunction. The judge said: "The court's duty remains to try and protect the claimant, and particularly his family, from intrusion and harassment so long as it can."

 

On Sunday, a Scottish paper named the man who was identified on Twitter as having taken out a privacy injunction. The Attorney General Dominic Grieve told the Commons the prime minister had asked for a joint committee of peers and MPs to investigate the use of privacy orders.

 

David Cameron has written a letter to John Whittingdale, chairman of the Commons culture committee, recommending the setting up of a new body. Mr Cameron told ITV1's Daybreak banning newspapers from naming such stars while the information was widely available on the internet was both "unsustainable" and "unfair".

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13503847

Mr Cameron told ITV1's Daybreak banning newspapers from naming such stars while the information was widely available on the internet was both "unsustainable" and "unfair".

 

Well done Mr. Cameron for displaying some common sense in this matter. Let's hope he follows through with it.

These injunctions have been getting out of hand.:dozey:

Enlarge

 

Left: The graph shows the number of people tweeting the footballer's name since Friday reached 56,000 by mid-afternoon. Right: The graph shows online searches for the footballer from across the world. Note the dramatic rise after news broke on Friday that he was taking action against Twitter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enlarge

Enlarge

 

Left: This graph shows online searches from within the UK since May 13. Again, from a fairly constant level it suddenly shoots up on Friday. Right: Again measuring from May 13th, the worldwide interest in the player surges towards the end of the month

 

 

Revealed: The four celebrities who could face huge legal bills for naming Ryan Giggs on Twitter over Imogen affair

By Daily Mail Reporter

 

Last updated at 5:27 PM on 24th May 2011

 

Four celebrities at the centre of the Twitter row over Ryan Giggs's affair with Imogen Thomas were named today as being Piers Morgan, Dom Joly, Toby Young and DJ Boy George.

The quartet, who between them had 952,200 followers by late this afternoon, could face a massive legal bill for damages after identifying the footballer on the microblogging site.

They were among around 75,000 people who named Giggs, defying a gagging order before Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming identified him as being the person behind the injunction.

 

 

 

Named: Piers Morgan (750,395 followers) and Dom Joly (84,921) are among the 'famous four' facing potentially huge legal bills for identifying Ryan Giggs

 

 

 

 

Singer Boy George (98,810) and writer Toby Young (18,074) also defied the injunction not to name the Premier League footballer

 

 

 

But the 'famous four' are the most high-profile Twitter users to be identified - and could now pay the price. Giggs can only be revealed as the footballer who obtained a gagging order thanks to the maverick MP's use of parliamentary privilege to name him.

Today ex-Britain’s Got Talent judge Morgan, Trigger Happy TV star Joly, author Young and Boy George were told they could be in for a 'rude shock' - because they flouted the gagging order.

Imogen Thomas was pictured leaving Max Clifford's office earlier today

 

The case highlights the confusion surrounding Britain’s privacy laws.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve told the Commons: 'Those who I think may take an idea that modern methods of communication mean they can act with impunity may well find themselves in for a rude shock.

'The courts do have the power to punish those who breach injunctions. Those who decide flagrantly to do so should bear that in mind.'

Today Liberal Democrat peer Lord Lester QC told the London Evening Standard: 'Anyone who abuses the internet and can be identified will face significant damages claims, that is why the Attorney General was right to warn them yesterday.'

Giggs won a privacy injunction last month banning the media from revealing an alleged affair with former Big Brother contestant Miss Thomas. Despite tens of thousand of people naming the Manchester United star on the internet, a judge yesterday decided the ban must continue.

His order was immediately broken by Lib Dem MP John Hemming who used parliamentary privilege, a centuries-old law that protects freedom of speech in the House of Commons.

However, celebrities who named Giggs before Hemming’s intervention opened the floodgates could still face prosecution.

Giles Coren, a restaurant critic and columnist for The Times, was accused of breaching privacy laws to tweet banned information about a footballer and was briefly thought to have been threatened with jail.

However, Morgan today was in bullish mood, tweeting: 'So Giles Coren was facing jail for naming Ryan Giggs - but an MP can do it and that’s fine. Our judges are making Britain look ridiculous.'

Coren also mocked the farcical situation, tweeting: 'B******s, I was looking forward to one of those suits with arrows as you can probably imagine, I was rather looking forward to being a free speech martyr. Now i’m just a paid pie-eater again.'

 

 

Ryan Giggs was photographed arriving at Manchester United's training ground this morning but is not believed to have taken part

 

Boy George last week wrote on Twitter: 'Lets all post RYAN GIGG’S PRIVATES! NOW! Ryan Giggs and myself have been at it for 14 years and we had Arnie’s kid. Will that do?'

Joly also drew attention when he tweeted: 'Frst, shag tart, then silence tart with g(i)gging order, then sue Twitter when normal people talk about it.

'I have not had sex with Ryan Giggs- just thought I’d make that plain'.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve warned people who flouted the gagging order could find themselves 'in for a rude shock'

 

How To Lose Friends and Alienate People author Toby Young tweeted: 'In other news, Ryan Giggs has decided to sue "the grapevine". "We can’t have people gossiping over the garden fence," said Schillings CEO.'

Lib Dem peer Lord Carlile said some Twitter users 'can and possibly should' be brought before the court for contempt, if they are found to have broken the gagging order.

Lawyers for Giggs have obtained an order in the High Court for details of fewer than 10 individuals who put messages on Twitter and could have broken the injunction.

Britain’s judiciary hit back at MPs today after Mr Hemming named Giggs in the Commons. Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice, told the Standard: 'I don’t approve of what I regard as a misuse of the privileges of Parliament.'

On the question of people naming the footballer on Twitter, Lord Woolf said: 'We have got to take the world as it is and adapt the procedures to accommodate it. We can’t put the clock back.'

Mr Hemming said he was prepared to go to jail to protect people from Britain’s 'secretive' justice system in which an anonymous individual could take action which could see another person jailed.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson refused to comment on the Giggs injunction at a press conference ahead of the Champions League final at Wembley against Barcelona in which the Welsh winger is expected to play.

 

Human Rights Act must be changed to stop judges gagging media, former Press watchdog head says

 

 

By Jason Groves

 

Last updated at 1:00 PM on 25th May 2011

 

 

• Speaker John Bercow told he must stand up for MPs' rights
  
• Tory Peter Bone tells Speaker to reassert Parliament's supremacy over the courts
  
• Master of the Rolls says Press could be barred from reporting words of MPs who use Parliamentary privilege
  

Parliament must amend the Human Rights Act to stop judges gagging the media over the private lives of celebrities, the former head of the press watchdog has warned.

Lord Wakeham said a situation in which judges grant anonymity orders in secret was a ‘shambles’ and an inevitable consequence of the Act brought in by Labour in 1998.

Writing an open letter to the Daily Telegraph, his recommendations come as pressure is placed on John Bercow to 'stand up for Parliament'.

Lord Wakeham said judges should hand out injunctions only if they affect public authorities. Celebrities would be unable to hide extramarital infidelities.

 

Mounting pressure: Speaker John Bercow has been urged to 'stand up for MPs' rights

 

 

 

Liberal Democrat John Hemming used Parliamentary privilege – which allows MPs to speak freely in the Commons without the threat of prosecution – to name Ryan Giggs. But the Commons Speaker told him that he ‘strongly deprecates the abuse of Parliamentary privilege to flout a (court) order or score a particular point’.

Former Tory leadership contender David Davis said: ‘The ability to speak freely is really one of the most fundamental liberties of Parliament. The Speaker has absolutely got to stand up on this.’

 

 

 

Fellow Tory Peter Bone said the Speaker had to reassert Parliament’s supremacy over the courts.

Mr Bercow's warning was read out in the Commons chamber by Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle as Mr Hemming prepared to make another intervention in the growing row over privacy.

Mr Hoyle said it was 'important that we recognise the need to temper our privilege with a responsibility.'

Warning: Mr Bercow has already told Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming to stop naming celebrities hiding behind gagging orders

The warning comes as Mr Bercow prepares to meet senior judges to discuss the growing constitutional crisis caused by the judiciary’s use of gagging orders to protect the wealthy.

 

The Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge last week suggested that MPs should not use their rights to name people with injunctions in the Commons.

 

And the Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger suggested that the media could be barred from reporting the words of MPs who do so – an idea explicitly ruled out by Mr Bercow in the Giggs case this week.

 

 

Liberties: David Davis argued that Mr Bercow has 'absolutely got to stand up' on the issue of using Parliamentary Privilege

 

MPs last night urged the Speaker to stand up for Parliament – and defend the right of privilege.

Former Tory leadership contender David Davis said: ‘The ability to speak freely is really one of the most fundamental liberties of Parliament. It has been used time and again throughout history to protect the country and the individual against the over-mighty power of the state or wealthy individuals.

 

‘The Speaker has absolutely got to stand up on this, otherwise people will look back and say Parliament has surrendered one of its fundamental powers.’

 

Fellow Tory Peter Bone said the Speaker’s role was to reassert Parliament’s supremacy over the courts.

 

Mr Bone said: ‘Whatever the judges may say to the contrary they are trying to modify our right of absolute privilege in the Chamber.

 

‘We are facing an attack from the judiciary saying there is a need to “codify” our right to speak freely. No there is not.’

Mr Hemming yesterday claimed details of the allegations were so well-known because of revelations by users of the social networking site Twitter that he could have made his controversial declaration ‘on Hyde Park Corner’ without fear of prosecution.

 

He said: ‘For me to have abused Parliamentary privilege I would have to use it in the first instance. I do not think that the case has been made out that in fact that would have been contempt of court outside this House.’

Many MPs supported last week’s Parliamentary moves, which also involved Mr Hemming, to reveal details of a super-injunction involving allegations of an affair between former Royal Bank of Scotland chief Sir Fred Goodwin and a senior female executive at the bank.

 

But Mr Hemming’s decision to also identify the former Manchester United star has divided MPs.

 

Nick Clegg yesterday slapped down Mr Hemming, telling MPs: ‘I don’t think anyone should be above the rule of law and if we don’t like the law we should act as legislators to change the law and not flout it.’

 

Tory MP Adam Afriyie questioned Mr Hemming’s qualification to act as ‘judge and jury’ over whether people using injunctions to protect their privacy should be named.

 

And Labour’s John Cryer branded Mr Hemming’s intervention an ‘an act of gross opportunism by a politician on an ego trip’.

 

Prime Minister David Cameron has now set up a joint committee of the Commons and the Lords to consider the issues of privacy and the use of injunctions.

David Davies has a lot of good things to say.

take note, Ryan.

 

The individuals who brought the legal action were councillors and officials at a local authority, South Tyneside

 

Twitter Told To Reveal UK Users In Libel Case

 

Twitter has been ordered to hand over confidential details of five British users in what could become a landmark case.

 

The US-based microblogging site bowed to pressure from three councillors and an official at South Tyneside council, who claimed they had been libelled in tweets. They took their legal case to America to unmask the anonymous individual behind the messages, who described themselves as "Mr Monkey".

 

Now a judge in California has ordered the site's bosses to reveal the details of five Twitter accounts. It is believed to be the first time the social networking site has been forced to provide details about users in the UK.

 

Experts say there could be a flood of further cases amid controversy over how celebrity gagging orders have been breached online by some Twitter users.

 

Lawyers for Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs have already attempted to get details of individuals who identified him on Twitter as having an injunction to protect details of his private life. Media lawyer Mark Stephens told Sky News: "Ryan Giggs' lawyers went to the High Court in London which doesn’t have jurisdiction over Twitter in California.

 

"Whereas the 9th Circuit court where the Tyneside council went in California does have jurisdiction over Twitter, so Twitter had no alternative but to hand over the material."

 

In the past Twitter has resisted handing over confidential information. Last week Tony Wang, the head of European operations warned details would be released if legally required. He tweeted: "We give users notice of requests so they have the opportunity to defend themselves."

 

Freedom of speech campaigners fear the success of the South Tyneside case may encourage others to take legal action in America, potentially uncovering many more names of previously anonymous users. The South Tyneside group are reported to have employed a US law firm to handle their case – thought to have cost the council many thousands of pounds.

 

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Video-Twitter-Libel-Case-Sees-South-Tyneside-Councillors-Forcing-Twitter-To-Reveal-UK-Users/Article/200907416001705?lpos=UK_News_First_UK_News_Article_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_16001705_Video%2C_Twitter%3A_Libel_Case_Sees_South_Tyneside_Councillors_Forcing_Twitter_To_Reveal_UK_Users

New Twitter user sets up account claiming to out celebrities who have used injunctions to cover up affairs

 

 

By Daily Mail Reporter

 

Last updated at 1:40 PM on 31st May 2011

 

 

 

Revealed: Ryan Giggs was one of the celebrities first named on Twitter as having taken out a super-injunction to hide an alleged affair

 

Celebrities and public figures believed to have used injunctions to hide affairs and other indiscretions have been outed by another controversial twitter account.

 

An anonymous user on the microblogging site has made the names public because the media has been prevented from reporting about their private lives.

 

The list, made in 14 separate tweets overnight, contains links to documents, names and even some addresses of those who it claims have been granted injunctions.

The messages, which can be read by anyone online, come after a council defended its legal fight to unmask a blogger amid reports Twitter has handed British users' details over to the local authority following a court order.

The council, which is based in South Shields, has been pursuing legal action against a blogger known as Mr Monkey, who has levelled a stream of criticisms and false allegations against councillors and council officers.

 

Gagged: From within its Town Hall (pictured) South Shields council has been pursuing legal action against a blogger known as Mr Monkey, who has levelled a stream of criticisms and allegations against councillors and council officers

 

The Sunday Telegraph said this demand has been granted - a move which some commentators believe could have wider consequences for celebrities wanting to track down Twitter users who have broken privacy injunctions.

 

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.'

Other twitter accounts have previously been set up claiming to reveal those with super-injunctions.

But some accusations turned out to be incorrect, forcing celebrities like Gabby Logan to speak out to the press to ensure the public knew the claims were untrue.

 

But Twitter was also responsible for the eventual naming of Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs as the person who used a super-injunction to hide his alleged affair with Big Brother contestant Imogen Thomas.

 

Twitter has become a hotbed for users wanting to reveal celebrities using super-injunctions to hide affairs

 

Because the footballer was named so frequently online, Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming then used parliamentary privilege to reveal Ryan Giggs as the footballer who took out a gagging order.

Last week, the former head of the press watchdog insisted that the Human Rights Act must be amended urgently to end the 'shambles' of judges gagging newspapers over the private lives of celebrities.

 

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, Lord Wakeham said the 'intolerable' spate of privacy injunctions granted was an 'inevitable' consequence of the legislation, which was passed by Labour in 1998.

 

The peer called for a change to the law so that judges could only grant injunctions where issues 'impact on public authorities and the state'.

 

Lord Wakeham, who chaired the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) from 1995 to 2001, suggested the media should be 'outside the direct supervision of the courts on privacy issues' and should instead be regulated by a strengthened PCC.

Prime Minister David Cameron, who campaigned at the last election to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights, has set up a committee of MPs and Lords to consider how to improve the 'unfair' situation of newspapers being bound by injunctions while foreign-based websites can ignore them.

 

But Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls and the most senior civil judge, said allegations on Twitter had 'by no means the same degree of intrusion into privacy as the story being emblazoned on the front pages of newspapers', which were more widely read and which 'people trust more'.

Twitter users warned they could face contempt action from the Attorney General himself, for breaching privacy orders

 

 

By Daily Mail Reporter

 

Last updated at 12:11 PM on 7th June 2011

 

 

Not exempt: Attorney General Dominic Grieve said that Twitter users in England and Wales were not exempt from observing privacy orders

 

Users of Twitter could face legal action for contempt of court if they use the micro-blogging website to breach privacy injunctions, the Attorney General warned today.

Twitter played a key role in the exposure of footballer Ryan Giggs's alleged affair with reality TV contestant Imogen Thomas, after an MP argued in the House of Commons that it was not possible to prosecute 75,000 of the site's users who had named him.

Alleged details of a number of injunctions have been anonymously posted on Twitter, and Giggs's lawyers were taking legal action to discover the identity of those who named him.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve said today that Twitter users in England and Wales were not exempt from the requirement to observe privacy orders.

It would normally be for those who had taken out injunctions to initiate action to enforce them, said Mr Grieve.

But he told BBC Radio 4's Law In Action that he would take action himself if he thought it necessary to uphold the rule of law.

Mr 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.'

 

People found to have deliberately breached court orders can be fined or even imprisoned for contempt of court.

In the Commons two weeks ago, Mr Grieve warned people who thought they could use modern methods of communication to 'act with impunity' that they might well find themselves in for 'a rude shock'.

 

 

 

Twitter played a key role in the exposure of Ryan Giggs's alleged affair with reality TV contestant Imogen Thomas, left