Woman sued for $50,000 over single tweet

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 28 Jul 2009 at 17:23

A woman is being sued $50,000 for a derogatory comment she made on Twitter.

The woman, Amanda Bobben, was a disgruntled tenant in a building owned by Horizon Realty. After a dispute with the firm, she tweeted "Who said sleeping in a moldy [sic] apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it's okay."

However, the housing company took exception to the tweet and promptly filed a libel lawsuit with Cook County Circuit Court, seeking $50,000 in damages from Bobben.

According to the complaint, Bobben "maliciously and wrongfully published the false and defamatory Tweet on Twitter, thereby allowing the Tweet to be distributed throughout the world."

Unfortunately, Bobben only had 22 followers, making it unlikely that her sleight travelled very far. The account has now been deleted.

In an article on Chicago Now, a spokesman for Horizon claimed the lawsuit was filed because "the statements are obviously false, and it's our intention to prove that".

When asked whether the company had contacted Bobben to remove the tweet before filing suit, the spokesperson claimed the company hadn't because "we're a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organisation".