Thread by @SimonFRCox

Lesson for tweeters from important judgment in Riley v Murray: don’t share your damaging take on a tweet without including a screen shot. My THREAD on the judgment 1/

https://twitter.com/mckinneytweets/status/1472898605166084097

I am not a libel lawyer. This thread is not legal advice. I am just someone who says really critical things and does not like to be sued for libel. (And hasn’t been.) 2/

Murray tweeted her take on what Riley meant in her tweet, without QT or screenshot. 3/

Judge decided Murray’s tweet included a statement of *fact* about what Riley had tweeted, not just Murray’s *opinion* 4/

Some people understood Riley’s tweet the way Murray called it. Others read it as calling Owen Jones a hypocrite. But… 5/

… by tweeting without showing Riley’s tweet, Murray left out the info for readers to see the range of meanings. Murray couldn’t justify her *unambiguous* claim about Riley’s tweet as true. 6/

For the same reasons, Murray could not defend her statement of her opinion as based on stated facts that are true. Her factual statement was too unequivocal to be true *enough* to form a defence for her stated opinion. 7/

This didn’t mean Murray was a liar. The judge accepted she honestly believed in her interpretation of Riley’s tweet. But it wasn’t the justified *single* meaning of Riley’s tweet - the interpretation Murray’s tweet stated - to give a defence to defamation. 8/

Key lesson from Riley v Murray - if you say something damaging, show readers your working.

Do not assume your tweet will be understood based on anything not in your tweet.

Murray lost because she made it so readers had to find Riley’s tweet to see ambiguity. 9/

You don’t have to RT. You can screenshot the tweet/s that you’re talking about.

You don’t have to imply it has only one meaning. You can say “I think some people will understand this as saying” 10/

Screenshotting doesn’t guarantee a defence, of course. But it helps show that your tweet is your own interpretation of a tweet, and not a claim that it has a unique interpretation. 11/

If you’re thinking of tweeting something damaging about someone:

Stop.
Go to a different mode.

Here are some ideas for a structured approach. 12/12

https://twitter.com/SimonFRCox/status/1346086460705959937