La Russa vs. Twitter Tests Web Anonymity

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa claims he was impugned by a microblogging impersonator on Twitter. Is the Web's anonymity at risk?

By Douglas MacMillan

For many, part of the appeal of social media sites is that they let users hide behind a cloak of anonymity—be it a thinly disguised handle known only to friends or an alias that lets a person post comments and blogs with virtual anonymity. Some users assume a public persona to comedic effect, such as when Dan Lyons blogged as the (fake) Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs.

But anonymity can take a more sinister turn—say, when a person uses it to create a real perception that they're someone else and then potentially maligns another person's character. A legal battle between Major League Baseball manager Tony La Russa of the St. Louis Cardinals and microblogging site Twitter is testing the limits of a person's ability to impersonate online. It could peel back the cloak of anonymity that propels much user-generated content.

On June 5 a complaint filed against Twitter with the Superior Court of California was moved to federal court by the San Francisco-based company. In it, La Russa accuses Twitter of trademark infringement and other infractions because the site allegedly failed to take down the account of someone who was pretending to be him. The impersonator had signed up for Twitter using the baseball manager's name and photo in April, and then posted comments that La Russa says impugned his reputation.

first to take twitter to court

Although several people have complained about impersonators on the microblogging site before, La Russa is the first to take the matter to court. Someone claiming to be the Dalai Lama earlier this year was suspended from the site, then later reappeared with the name "the UNOFFICIAL Twitter page of His Holiness the Dalai Lama." In May rapper and producer Kanye West complained on his personal blog about an imposter posing as him, and called Twitter "irresponsible and deceitful" for not doing anything to stop it; the site later removed postings by West's impersonator.

Twitter lets users post under any name they wish, real or imagined, so long as they make it clear if they're impersonating someone. The site's terms of service clearly prohibit impersonation and postings "intended to mislead, confuse, or deceive others." The company has frequently enforced these terms by barring certain accounts and users.

Yet as growing numbers of people join Twitter, policing the population becomes more difficult. This has legal experts wondering whether and when Internet companies might be forced to take more aggressive steps to stop impersonation. "At some point will we redraw the balance and give protection to individuals?" asks Harry Rubin, a partner at New York law firm Ropes & Gray.

If La Russa's case goes to trial, it may address these questions. Officially, the suit is active. But La Russa's attorney, Gregory McCoy of Gagen, McCoy, McMahon, Markowitz & Raines, tells BusinessWeek that he recently reached a settlement by phone with lawyers from Fenwick & West, the firm representing Twitter. On June 6, however, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone denied that a settlement had been reached. "Twitter has not settled, nor do we plan to settle or pay," Stone wrote in a blog entry. "With due respect to the man and his notable work, Mr. La Russa's lawsuit was an unnecessary waste of judicial resources bordering on frivolous."

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