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Daily Mail sues Twitter satirist

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By John Glenday, Reporter

July 31, 2012 | 2 min read

Lawyers acting for the Daily Mail have failed to see the funny side of a spoof Twitter account set up to mock the publisher’s chief executive of regional publishing, Steve Auckland.

The anonymous account holder has had a case filed against them in the US which includes charges of illegal email interception, impersonation and defamation over their 140 character digs.

Northcliffe Media, the titles regional publishing arm, contends that the account @UnSteveDorkland goes beyond satire with the account holder hacking the firms computer systems and spying on staff.

Court papers allege: “At least some of the information made public on Twitter by the Defendant was not known publicly, and on information and belief,” the court documents said. “The only way that such information could be obtained was by hacking into an email account at [Northcliffe’s] business.”

In a statement Auckland said: “Some of the recent anonymous activity on Twitter has been both obsessive and offensive. We will not tolerate such behaviour ... I will not tolerate any form of harassment of Northcliffe Media’s employees, especially from anonymous sources.”

Twitter has become an increasingly contested battleground for free speech campaigners in recent months following a number of successful subpoena’s filed against members of Occupy Wall Street and Wikipedia.

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