UK court allows warrant via Twitter

The lawyers for British conservative blogger Donal Blaney on Thursday received permission from the British High Court to send a court order via Twitter to a user of the service who poses as their client.

Blaney had been annoyed for some time by a Twitter user who published all kinds of messages under his name. “The content of the Twitter account was slightly objectionable, but what really started to annoy me was that my acquaintances started following it, assuming it was me,” Blaney said. Since the user did not reveal his true identity or email address, it was quite difficult to send him an order to stop doing this.

Because of this issue, the High Court on Thursday authorized the order to be sent via Twitter. Since Twitter posts can be up to 140 characters long, the post contains a link to a court document. In this, the user is ordered to stop posting messages under Blaney’s name, delete the old messages and reveal his identity to the court, so reports the Daily Telegraph.

It is the first time a court in the United Kingdom has allowed a court order to be sent in this way. By law, a court order does not have to be issued in person; this can also be done by fax or e-mail. The High Court has now added Twitter to this.