Racism and Twitter impersonation prompt lawsuit for Kirkland teen
By MEGAN MANAGAN
Kirkland Reporter writer
April 5, 2010 · Updated 9:29 AM
A Lake Washington High School student is suing to get to the bottom of an apparent impersonation on Twitter after he received threats from students at a rival high school in Seattle.
Late last month, the LWHS student received threats from students at a Seattle high school after he allegedly made racially charged comments to another individual on Twitter. The LWHS student has said the comments were not made by him, nor did the comments come from his Twitter account, but an account with a similar name to his. Both students involved are members of their high school basketball teams, and the comments were made following a game between the two schools in which Garfield lost.
The LWHS student, represented by Seattle attorney Sim Osborn, is now suing the unknown person and as part of that process has issued a subpoena to Twitter to find out who created the account. According to seattlepi.com, Twitter has agreed to release information about who created the account, which is no longer accessible on Twitter, after a 20-day waiting period to allow the account holder time to respond.
No trial date has been set for the case.
Twitter is a social media tool which allows people who sign up for accounts to write up to 140 characters at a time. The Kirkland Reporter is not identifying the students because of their age.
Contact Kirkland Reporter writer Megan Managan at mmanagan@kirklandreporter.com.Comment on this story.
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