Tweeter To Be Prosecuted, Twitter Now Censoring?

Andy Smith writes "Slashdot has already covered the super-injunctions furore in the UK, with one famous footballer going after an anonymous Twitter user who broke a court order and revealed his extra-marital affair. Now another footballer has asked the attorney general to prosecute a well-known journalist and TV personality, who went against another super-injunction and wrote about this footballer, again on Twitter. Meanwhile, going back to the first footballer, it looks like he's got Twitter running scared, as the site is apparently blocking his name from appearing on the trend list, despite him being one of the most tweeted-about people."

Comments

A suggestion

[dwillden]

For those overpaid athletes: Don't want people tweeting about your affairs? Don't step out on your spouse. It's plain and simple. If they insist on being able to cheat on their wives then they should retire and leave the limelight so nobody will care.

Their fame naturally reduces their ability to live a private life. But they don't have to live that life, they could get a regular job and disappear into the crowd.

Re:A suggestion

[Anonymous Coward]

No one cares he's shitting on his wife and family. People are talking about this because he's abusing the law to hush it up. Had he ignored it, he'd only have to deal with his wife's divorce firm, and no one would be remotely interested in yet another Premier League player getting caught sleeping around.

Re:Where is this going to end

[iamhassi]

"Are you telling me that cheap gossip like extra-marital affairs of pro footballers will have to be leaked through wikileaks in the future?"

I'm less concerned about cheating football players and more concerned with overthrowing corrupt governments. Can a corrupt judge in a corrupt government simply say "don't talk about revolution" and Twitter will simply roll over and play dead? How would the Egyptian and Tunisia revolutions gone without the communication that Twitter provided?

Looks like we need a replacement for twitter.

Barbara Streisand effect all over again

[Flipao]

This gag order thing is going to make Ryan Giggs look far worse than whatever it is he's been doing without his wife's knowledge.

Re:Where is this going to end

[John Hasler]

> ...if it didn't happen in public it's not public information.

If it didn't happen in public the public would not know about it.

Re:Slashdot is not UK based

[theshowmecanuck]

for identifying the footballer who is trying to sue a Twitter user for identifying him, in violation of a court order.

What is the public benefit to prohibiting publication of some guy messing around? If someone finds out about something someone is doing, why would it be made illegal to talk about if it is true? Isn't this a violation of free speech? Oh, I forgot, this is in England, the most heavily 'big brothered' country outside of a communist block. No wonder an Englishman could envision 1984. Keep working at it. Soon you will indeed have the ministry of truth.