Twitter Taken to Court by UK Council

It has been revealed that South Tyneside council have taken Twitter to a US court to force the release of personal details of one of the sites users. The move for action has been driven by a particular Twitter member posting under the username of 'Mr Monkey', for which libellous statements were made towards the council.

This comes weeks after British footballer Ryan Giggs attempted to similarly disclose the identities of Twitter users in the UK High Court, who had named the Welsh player linked to an affair, by disregarding a privacy injunction. It is believed that Twitter were not required to comply as the ruling was not enforceable in the US, where the social media company is based.

However, South Tyneside councillors Iain Malcolm, David Potts and Anne Walsh have reportedly managed to unmask the identity of the libellous user after applying for a court order in the US.

Ahmed Khan, an independent South Shields councillor is believed to be the man behind the 'Mr Monkey' posts, was informed by Twitter that an account details request had been received against his membership. Mr Khan responded by saying "It not only breaches my human rights, but it potentially breaches the human rights of anyone who has ever sent me a message on Twitter."

This case is now likely to be a landmark ruling against Twitter,with law experts suggesting that this may prompt in the future UK citizens to take action in US.

Will this be the precedent set? Will this effect Freedom of Speech? How will this impact Twitter?