A sentence or two – or specifically, 140 characters – doesn't seem like a lot of space to commit libel. On Kim Kardashian's Twitter feed, it may well have been, though it was really just one word that was the problem: "unhealthy."
The problems began when Kardashian sent a cease-and-desist letter to the manufacturers of Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet, accusing them of falsely attributing her endorsement to their product. Though the company says that they never made such a claim, they did find statements related to their product on Kardashian's Twitter feed, including: "Dr. Siegal's cookie diet is falsely promoting that I'm on this diet. NOT TRUE! I would never do this unhealthy diet! I do QuickTrim!"
The company has since filed a defamation lawsuit, saying that Kardashian's derogatory statement about the brand could cost them "tens of millions of dollars." Complicating matters is that Kardashian is actually a paid endorser of QuickTrim, another diet product. Therefore, the company behind the Cookie Diet claims, Kardashian had incentive to make damaging public comments.
The most problematic part of Kardashian's tweet could be the word "unhealthy," the question becoming whether it was a statement of opinion or a statement of fact. This could be the line between free speech and liability.
This case brings up an interesting example of the power of social media, particularly when it comes to celebrities. After all, saying something to your friends is one thing; saying something to nearly 3 million of them is another. Bloggers know by now that words can be dangerous; the litigation magnet Perez Hilton is proof enough of this. Perhaps now Twitter users are learning the same lesson – 140 characters at a time.
Source: Legalmatchmaker.com
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