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140 character reputation law suit

28th July
2009
written by Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross

 A woman living in the Chicago is being sued for allegedly Twittering that her management company is okay with moldy apartments where she lives. Horizon Group Management sued her this week for publishing “a false and defamatory tweet” on Twitter. According to the suit the woman Twittered “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.” Horizon Group Management is suing because it says it has been greatly injured in its reputation as a landlord. How much? In excess of $50,000 in damages.

 

Reputation injury law suits a la Twitter are starting. Wonder what the law says about Twitter defamation.

Tags: , ,
Blogroll, online reputation, Reputation crisis

2 Comments

  1. RantBombBoy
    29/07/2009

    Well, if I were horizon, I would have contacted Bonnen and apologized if there was mold. And if horizon had in fact been defamed at all by the tweet, then they should have issued a statement through the press that was honest, saying that they will fix the problem.

    People have the right to express their opinions about companies, public or not. Especially if it was true, which I believe it was. Why else would Horizon get on the defensive so fast?

    Horizon looks even worse by the way they are handling all this.

  2. Paul Seaman
    29/07/2009

    In English law you could be as guilty as the woman being accused – if indeed she is guilty – of libel. Just because you are repeating what she supposedly said would not make what you’ve printed any less libelous: the point being to limit the damage to reputations from the spreading of false, damaging words beyond the first mention. Have you overstepped the mark? I certainly think she did not, and I hope that US law is robust enough to knock this nonsense out of court.

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