John Roa » The Blog

Came across an interesting story this morning in the blogosphere – “Will one Chicago woman’s Tweet cost her $50,000?“. Here is a quick recap if you don’t want to read the whole article ..

Today, Horizon Group Management filed a lawsuit against her, alleging that her statement damaged the company’s business reputation.

Pretty interesting stuff, for one business reason, one theoretical reason and one very scary reason …

1. What is worse PR? Having someone spouting off to 20 followers that she has a moldy apartment & her realty company (apparently) hasn’t done anything about it, or having the entire internet aggregating it? As Marian points out, they could/should have turned this into a very positive PR outreach by accepting there was a problem that needed solving.
2. Even though Twitter asks the question “What are you doing?”, that isn’t what question the site answers in reality. It actually speaks to “What are you thinking?” (I have a whole blog post coming on this soon). That said, is something as nebulous as the above blog post considered defamation? Where does the line get drawn?
3. Depending on your opinion on #2, and where this court case ends up, this could take some steam away from “I’m a millionaire for spilling hot coffee on myself and suing” type people as the new breeding ground for lawsuit-happy individuals and companies. Is the Bluetooth Special Interest Group going to sue me for implying that you are an idiot to use their product in a loud bar? Or maybe US Airways for damaging their seat’s reputation?

Admittedly, maybe not apples to apples, but you get the idea. It will be interesting to see where this goes and what the ultimate kickback from the community is.

I, for one, would not feel comfortable doing business with Horizon Realty after this. If they sue for $50,000 over a tweet, could you imagine forgetting to patch a hole in the wall when you move out!??! You’d be rooming with Madoff soon.