Twitter Sued Over Impersonation

Many celebrities are on Twitter nowadays. Many more are being impersonated. Up until now this has been treated as a fairly harmless bit of fun – but that may be about to change.

According to StLToday Tony La Russa, manager of the St Louis Cardinals is suing Twitter over alleged impersonation. The lawsuit alleges that an unauthorised Twitter account claiming to be La Russa caused him “significant emotional distress, damage to his reputation, and damage to the goodwill of his mark”.

At the moment Twitter accounts are a free-for-all with many famous names being grabbed either by fans, impersonators or simple cyber-squatters. There has been talk of validated identity being part of a chargeable premium Twitter service. Unless and until that happens unofficial validation sites such as Valebrity are likely to become increasingly important.