Twitter severs links with ’star-stalking’ website
By ANISaturday, October 16, 2010
LONDON - Micro-blogging giant Twitter has dissolved its links with an upcoming website that plans to ’stalk’ celebrities.
It cut its links after lawyers and privacy campaigners condemned JustSpotted.com as an invasion of privacy.
The website, which is scheduled to begin operating soon, aims to track the movements of the famous.
It had been developed in co-operation with Twitter and other social networking websites to collate news of 7,000 celebrities who advertise their activities through the Internet.
It aims to collect information on stars and their whereabouts from their own postings on social networking websites and from sightings sent in by the public.
But yesterday, as the privacy row gathered momentum, Twitter executives distanced themselves from JustSpotted.
“This is not the product we licensed, and we have terminated their agreement,” the Daily Mail quoted Twitter spokesman Matt Graves as saying.
However, lawyer Rod Dadak, head of defamation at the Lewis Silkin firm, said the site might break anti-stalking laws.
“I don’t think this site will survive. It could be seen as inciting people to pay celebrities a visit. It could amount to a criminal offence, and it is certainly invading privacy,” he said. (ANI)
