Twitter undermines superinjunctions

On May 9, 2011, some people using the social networking site Twitter published the names of celebrities alleged to have obtained ‘superinjunctions’. This led to some calls for an overhaul of Britain’s privacy laws. Subsequently, a Twitter user (adopting a pseudonym) named celebrities who had allegedly taken out secret gagging orders. That Twitter account quickly gathered 55,000 followers, detailing six cases of actors, television presenters, a chef and a footballer in an apparent effort to undermine the court orders. Many thousands of Twitter users subsequently breached the privacy orders by re-tweeting the banned names, particularly of the footballer, known at that time only as CTB, who was alleged to have had an extramarital affair with Big Brother contestant Imogen Thomas.