Well here’s a fun one. A Chicago-based property management company, Horizon Group Management, filed a $50,000 lawsuit yesterday morning against current tenant Amanda Bonnen for libel and defamation. The damning evidence? Why yes, a tweet. According to the Sun-Times, Bonnen – going by @abonnen in the world of tweets and twitters – sent this message to her, uh, TWENTY followers:
Apparently Horizon doesn’t think it’s okay, bringing out their big-guns (i.e. horde of lawyers) for damage control. According to company spokesman, Jeffrey Michael, “The statements are obviously false, and it’s our intention to prove that.” He went on to mention the importance of the company’s good reputation, finally ending with the pleasant charge, “We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization.” Oh goodie.
Okay, so first up – oh shit! – defamation lawsuits for offensive tweets is now a-okay? The days of anonymous snipes and zings have met their end? Say it ain’t so, folks. After all, wasn’t that the whole point of the Internet? I’d hate to think it was time for us all to go private.
But furthermore, what exactly is Horizon really trying to accomplish here? I’d like to think they had no chance in court, but knowing the kind folks in Chicago, who knows. But even if they do win, they’re sure to lose over $50,000 worth of, uh, reputation points just for this ridiculous story alone. I mean, who’s going to want to rent from a company that explicitly states, “We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization.”
And all over a Twitter message? Written by a user with just around twenty followers? As in, her family and a couple of friends? That is, the sorts of people she talks to regularly all the time? What the hell Horizon? I mean, let’s just do the math real quick. $50,000 for a 125 character message comes out to be $400 per character. That’s like a Wii with controllers and a few games, for each and every letter, space and punctuation mark in her message!
Comments
Spiffy
July 28th, 2009 - 10:47:07 AM
We still haven't heard if she contacted Horizon about the mold before posting that. If she did and they took no immediate action then Horizon will lose big, but if she didn't then she'll lose.
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Jake
July 28th, 2009 - 11:45:25 AM
libel via twitter? if Horizon wins, this really would be a low point for internet culture
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mr. jones
July 28th, 2009 - 2:28:00 PM
Horizon Realty Group is now the top example for the Streisand Effect wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
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Cari Smith
July 30th, 2009 - 11:04:29 AM
I am going to say that with the few characters that are in her message, she did notify them. Also typically when a tenant does contact a landlord, or management company about mold, it falls on deaf ears until something like this happens, or they are being contacted by the health department. Good for you Amanda, Boo to the management company. I am a property manager, who specifically went into the business because of a slum lord in a Chicago suburb in 03. And even now, they're are still a lot of bad eggs out there. Paperwork, names dates and times are crucial whenever you are dealing with a maintenance issue with these people.
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