Twitter vs. the U.K. Superinjunction
A series of tweets had the British legal system in a frenzy in May 2011 as anonymous accounts began tweeting reports of an affair between between footballer Ryan Giggs and reality TV star Imogen Thomas. The problem? Giggs had a super-injunction in place that forbid anyone from reporting on his personal life. So as traditional media outlets could do nothing, Twitter was burning with gossip. (The site even broke a traffic record in the U.K., when one in every 200 Brits online logged onto Twitter.com.) Courts demanded account information from Twitter and the company was sued, in addition to the list of specific Twitter users listed in confidential court documents. At the time, Giggs' identity was referred to as "a VIP" by the media until MP John Hemming pointed a finger at Giggs during a press conference. "As things stand, Britain's twisted privacy law is archaic," wrote the London Times in an editorial. "In the past, this was merely wrong. Today, it is idiotic." But it's still the law.