Twitter sued in Australia for defamation for first time over Marieke Hardy comments

17 February 2012: An Australian man is suing Twitter for defamation after ABC  personality and author Marieke Hardy wrongly accused him of being the author of  a hate blog.

Melbourne man Joshua Meggitt threatened Hardy with defamation action last  year after she made the allegations on her on Twitter account.  Hardy later  reportedly settled this out of court for $15,000 reported Fairfax Media outlets.

Mr Meggitt’s  lawyer said his client was now seeking legal redress  from the social media company: “Twitter are a publisher, and at law anyone  involved in the publication can be sued.”

“We’re suing for the retweets  and the original tweet – and many of the retweets and comments are far  worse.”

The action drama began  when Hardy denounced Melbourne man Mr Meggitt as a hate blogger who had been stalking her for years, writing on her Twitter account “I name and shame my  ‘anonymous’ internet bully.  Liberating business!  Join me,” she then linked to a post on her blog wrongly  identifying Mr Meggitt.

Hardy wrote on her blog at the time of settling  the matter in December last year: “I accept that Joshua is not the writer and I  sincerely apologise to him and his family for any upset caused”.

A  spokeswoman for Twitter said the company had no comment.

Full story here.



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