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?

Twitter Aquires TweetDeck for £25 Million

After much speculation, Twitter have confirmed the £25 Million acquisition of the third-party client TweetDeck on Tuesday. Rumors of the possible purchase came to fruition in April when it was believed Twitter was in the later stages of finalizing a deal with TweetDeck. Then UberMedia, a company many commentators feel is aiming to rival Twitter, was believed to have started negotiating as well with TweetDeck.

The TweetDeck client is popular as it will allow users to organise feeds of brands, celebrities and people they follow on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn amongst other social network sites.

The purchase of TweetDeck by Twitter is speculated to be a defensive approach by the social networking site, as an attempt to gain control over the growth and innovation increasingly driven by third-parties. Its estimated that prior to the acquisition 13% of all tweets are sent from TweetDeck.

Due to the nature of the purchase, many TweetDeck users are in doubt for what the future holds for the service. According to fanspagelist.com, in the days following the announcement, TweetDeck's tweet account became amongst the most followed in the world. Many speculate that Twitter will incorporate some of TweetDeck's features as well as discontinue services too, key areas being the current integration with other social network sites, such as Facebook.