Twitter: 'Verified Accounts' Will Stop Imposters

(NEWSER) - Twitter's in trouble again for another celebrity impersonator. St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa is suing the site after someone tweeted off-color remarks under his name and likeness, reports Mashable. His lawsuit charges trademark infringement and says La Russa suffered "emotional distress" and damage to his reputation. Two of the tweets made reference to Cardinals pitchers who recently died, notes the Post-Dispatch. More»

Star's angry rants sparks microblogging site's first libel suit

(NEWSER) - Twitter, the microblogging site that even counts President Obama as a member, has reached yet another milestone: it’s first libel suit, the Independent reports. Courtney Love’s former fashion designer claims the wild rocker left angry “tweets” about her, calling her a “nasty, lying, hosebag thief” with “a history of dealing cocaine” who would be “hunted til your [sic] dead.” More»

Twitterverse battle does little damage

(NEWSER) - Russia is unleashing its latest weapon in a standoff with the US: Twitter. A barrage of critical tweets attacked US ambassador Michael McFaul for his "unprofessional" speech to Moscow economic students concerning the two nations. An "ambassador's job is to improve bilateral ties, not to spread blatant falsehoods through the mediasphere," said one of the tweets, which accused McFaul of several "distortions." More»

Jennifer Egan's 'Black Box' serialized on Twitter

(NEWSER) - The latest story from a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer will appear in 140-character chunks. The New Yorker is publishing Jennifer Egan's "Black Box" in installments on Twitter, the New York Observer reports. The tweets, which began yesterday , will appear from 8pm to 9pm every day for nine days. They'll also be collected each day at the magazine's Page-Turner blog . The whole story will appear in Monday's science fiction issue of the New Yorker. More»

Users have rights to all content, company argues

(NEWSER) - Twitter is fighting a subpoena demanding tweets of an Occupy protester on trial in Manhattan. The outcome of the battle could have a major impact on tweeters' privacy. The company is arguing that Twitter has no claim on a user's communication, and therefore has no right to turn them over to a court. Prosecutors are seeking three months of tweets written by protester Malcolm Harris, who was busted on the Brooklyn Bridge last year along with 700 other Occupy activists. Harris filed his own motion to quash the subpoena, contending there's "no justification" for access to "such a broad swath of electronic data." But the judge threw out the motion, ruling that the tweets don't belong to him and he has no standing to fight for them. More»