The BBC reports that South Tyneside Council is taking Twitter to court in the US to force them to reveal the identity of blogger Mr Monkey. It isn’t clear to me why Twitter should be the one facing the action, since the blogger in question (who has had at least two ‘incarnations‘) is hosted by WordPress.com but no doubt it makes sense to someone.
Mr Monkey has devoted himself to exposing what he sees as corruption in the corridors of power of his local authority, which is perfectly laudable of course. However, the blog trumpets itself as “South Tyneside’s Premier Blog” and I’ve got to admit that I’m suspicious of any blogger that goes in for that sort of self-aggrandizing claim. Secondly, a quick look at the blog reveals that he has not been above making mocking comments about the mental health of one of his targetted councillors — always unacceptable in my book.
I don’t know enough about the situation to have a worthwhile opinion about the litigation. But it does remind us that bloggers have responsibilities and need to be prepared to be held accountable.
Update: The plot thickens. Turns out that the blogger is himself a councillor.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
malc 05.29.11 at 7:16 pm
I wonder who’s paying for all this… presumably the tax-payers…
Richard 05.29.11 at 7:19 pm
The council tax payers of South Tyneside, I think. A few minutes ago on the BBC they were saying that Twitter have disclosed Mr Monkey’s identity to the Council.
malc 05.29.11 at 7:28 pm
I would laugh if it turned out not to be the guy’s real name… after all there are no checks, you only need an email address to set up a Twitter account… Mr John Smith… or with the name ‘Mr Monkey’ - P. G. Tips!!!
Earl 05.31.11 at 9:17 pm
Looks like “Mr. Monkey…” exposed a politician for monkeying around with ballots. The exposed politician was embarrassed so he then used public money to expose the identity of “Mr. Monkey” and, I suppose begin a legal action against him. Guess the exposed politician couldn’t handle someone making a monkey out of him. It’s hard to get people to overlook gross election fraud.
Richard 05.31.11 at 9:25 pm
I’m not convinced it as simple as that Earl. A case of one politician making anonymous allegations against another has a sour flavour about it I reckon.
Earl 05.31.11 at 10:26 pm
It is said that the making of sausage and the political process are such that neither is something one wants to watch. This appears to bear that out.