Twitter and unnamed Twitterers sued by anonymous man

Twitter and certain Twitter users have been sued in the High Court in London by an individual referred to only by the initials "CTB".

The initials are meant to maintain the anonymity of the individual, but the same initials were used in a previous suit brought by a professional footballer in the UK who has won a so-called "super injunction" that bars the media from publishing stories about an affair he allegedly had with a reality TV star, the Financial Times reports.

The suit was filed against Twitter on May 18, and it also names “persons unknown responsible for the publication of information on the Twitter accounts”. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On May 8, an anonymous Twitter user posted six messages to the micro-blogging service listing several UK celebrities who have allegedly won super injunctions banning the media from reporting on certain actions. The posts also claimed to reveal these actions. This Twitter account has gained more than 110,000 "followers".

A day later, on May 9, an official Twitter company account used to send messages to the press mentioned – and linked to – the account that revealed the alleged super injunctions. This account is still active, and its six messages are still available.

Naming the account could be problematic for some publications – including The Register – because of the super-injunction won by CTB. Twitter has long been a proponent of online free speech, and it does not yet have a UK presence.

Many Twitter users have repeated the information posted by this account in an effort to push it to the top of Twitter "trending topics". Some users claim that Twitter has prevented this from happening.

It would appear that the CTB lawsuit names multiple unnamed Twitter users because so many users are repeating the information posted to the original account. Those repeating the rumors may number in the tens of thousands. ®