B.C. billionaire gets green light to sue Twitter
Clinton foundation board member says his reputation defamed on social media
B.C. billionaire Frank Giustra has won the right to sue Twitter for defamation after a judge ruled that B.C. courts have jurisdiction to hear the case.
In April 2019, Giustra filed a lawsuit claiming that he had faced a targeted attack on the social media giant's platform by a group that set out to vilify him for political purposes, starting around February 2015 and escalating during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Giustra, who sits on the board of the Clinton Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by former U.S. president Bill Clinton, said the tweets accused him of being involved in “Pizzagate,” a debunked child sex-trafficking conspiracy theory. The West Vancouver businessman and philanthropist said the tweets also left the false impression that he was corrupt, a “murderous thief,” and a criminal.
In July 2019, Twitter filed an application to dismiss or stay the case on grounds that B.C. courts lacked jurisdiction in the matter.
The company, based in California, argued that the case would be better heard in the United States, but Giustra pointed out that he has a substantial profile and reputation in both Canada and the U.S.
In his ruling on the case, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elliott Myers noted that the case illustrated the jurisdictional difficulties with internet defamation, when the publication of defamatory comments takes place in several countries where the plaintiff has a reputation to protect.
“The presumption is that a defendant should be sued in only one jurisdiction for an alleged wrong, but that is not a simple goal to achieve fairly for internet defamation.”
The judge observed a “significant factor” was both parties acknowledging that Twitter would not be liable for damages in the U.S. due to freedom of speech provisions in the First Amendment.
Whether Canadian common law provides similar protections for a platform such as Twitter would have to be determined at trial.
For the purposes of a jurisdictional challenge, he said Giustra had demonstrated damage to his reputation here in Canada.
Although Twitter has yet to file a response, the company has indicated that it intends to defend the case mainly on the basis that it is not a publisher of the tweets.
Twitter also expects to call witnesses to testify about the company's inability to monitor the hundreds of millions of tweets posted to the platform each day.