How to avoid (successful) accusations of defamation on Twitter. A few thoughts from someone who is NOT a libel lawyer, but does say very critical things about named individuals. 1/

1. Facts are different from opinions. But stating an opinion can imply a fact. https://t.co/1PkiI4olib
2. When I tweet I aim to be sure A. I show the *facts* I am basing my *opinion* on. B. I have good reason to believe the *facts* are true. C. My opinion is reasonable based on the facts.
Here I am calling Arron Banks a racist (opinion). Pointing out this is because he called for mosques to be demolished (fact). 4/ https://t.co/mk6g7TeBzE
I can prove this fact - and others - about what Banks has said. And I can justify why in my opinion that shows he’s a racist. 5/
It may be different if I called [person] a racist without indicating why - because that may imply to readers I know [damaging facts] that I can’t prove. 6/
3. When you tweet your facts with your opinion, you help show what you mean by your words. So “corruption” has different meanings - here I’m showing one 7/ https://t.co/jgVVtnsC5D
4. If someone alleges defamation, take it seriously. Think “can I prove the fact I stated / based my opinion on? Is my opinion reasonable?” 8/
5. If you’re in doubt, ask someone you trust to read what you’ve said. And to ask you those same questions - “can you prove the facts? Is your opinion reasonable?” 9/
6. Just because someone says “that’s libel” doesn’t mean it is. Yaxley-Lennon *is* a racist. He hasn’t sued me yet. 10/
7. If you think your tweet was wrong, or you don’t think you can show the facts, I’d delete it. You can always tweet it again if you become sure enough. 11/
8. If someone tells you they think you libelled *them* (not someone else), don’t ignore them. Think about how to respond, and respond. 12/
9. A person who may have been libelled is expected by the court to try to settle the dispute without proceedings. https://t.co/Jb9kDB8aT9
10. If someone tweets/DMs that you’ve libelled them but it’s not clear how, you can ask them what it is that you’ve said they disagree with - especially *factually*.

Because you may have it wrong, or they may have misunderstood you. 14/
11. Think before you *re-tweet* and *reply* to a tweet that may be libellous. Treat RTing and agreeing replies as if the tweet was in your name. 15/
Libel law is important protection.

How our friends, colleagues, the world sees us matters to many people. The law isn’t going away.

16/16

More from Law

I was right. "Lawyer" starts out with name-calling and an insistence that trial is "unconstitutional". He's saying Trump's 1/6 speech was rather bland, and pretending that was the only thing the House managers talked about, and the managers were "slanderous."

Bilious bullshit.


"Lawyer" is arguing that since there were objections raised by Democrats to some of the vote counts in 2016, that means Trump didn't engage in sedition.

I'm not sure how that logic works.

Now they're running a Trump campaign commercial.

A bunch of whataboutism, contrasting patriotic music behind Trump's racist dogwhistles about "law and order" against Democrats making firey speeches with dark music.

He went to the moronic Gym Jordan argument that Trump couldn't have instigated insurrection if the violence was gonna happen anyway (without acknowledging Trump had been encouraging and building up to that violence for close to a year).

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