Courtney Love has made history.

But, given her reputation – probably not in a good way, eh?

Back in March 2009, Courtney Love was sued for defamation by fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir for comments Love made to Simorangkir on Twitter.  One of the alleged tweets was “Oi vey don’t (expletive) with my wardrobe or you will end up in a circle of scorched earth hunted ‘til your dead.”  So, yes, although this comment is pretty harsh, isn’t Love entitled to freedom of speech?

Love apparently thought along these same grounds, which is why she and her attorney attempted to dismiss the case.  However, on Monday, LA Superior Court Judge Aurelio Munoz denied her request, stating that “Love’s comments were not made to serve the public interest”.   And, with that decision, Love became the first ever celebrity to be served with a defamation suit for comments made on Twitter.

But, let’s ponder this situation – Do Love’s comments REALLY constitute defamation of character?  If we think about Love’s overall reputation for a minute, she isn’t exactly known to be a squeaky clean, meek and innocent schoolgirl.  It’s probably just part of her character to say exactly what’s on her mind.  And, through ANY means necessary – face-to-face, over the phone, via  social media.  If Love wants to make a comment like that to Simorangkir, isn’t she allowed to?  (I mean, we’ve ALL made comments like that, haven’t we?)

We all agree that one of the main points of Twitter is to allow a person to post whatever they want, at any given time.  Freedom of speech at its finest! I could tweet about how much I despise Ben Gordon for leaving the Bulls with something like, “B. Gordon is such a terrible person*!”  Would that mean that Mr. Gordon would slap me with a defamation suit, too?  I doubt it!  I’m simply stating a comment.  So, why should Love be penalized for making the same type of comment?

And, Twitter wars isn’t a new thing.  A ton of feuds (in 140 characters or less!) have popped up recently, including Chad Ochocinco v. Lance Briggs, Spencer Pratt v. Ryan Seacrest and the entire general public v. Kanye West.  None of these highly publicized Twitter Wars resulted in lawsuits, so why is Love’s case any different?

In light of Love’s case, I wonder if we will all need to filter what we post on Twitter in the future.  If so, doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of social media forums?  Or, is this a case where Love’s reputation simply preceded her?

Thoughts?

(* – Please note that I love Ben Gordon and was genuinely upset that he signed with the Pistons.)

Please leave a comment below.

Posted by Melanie on October 29, 2009 at 1:40 pm.

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