A lawsuit seeking class action status was filed against Twitter in the San Francisco Federal Court, alleging the social media giant of "surreptitiously eavesdrop[ping] on its users' private direct message communications." According to the allegations, as soon as a user sends a direct message, Twitter reportedly intercepts, reads and--at times--even alters the message.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the lawsuit claims that "Twitter's algorithms will read through the Direct Message, identify the hyperlink, and replace it with its own custom link, thereby sending the person clicking on the link to Twitter's analytics servers before passing them on to the original linked-to website," and this interference is in clear violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and California's privacy law.
Twitter's Direct Messaging feature was launched earlier this year is a giant leap for the forum-based social media network to cope with the rise of messaging apps. The use of link-shortener is usual to accommodate the 140 character limit in Twitter. However, the 140 character limit in the Direct Messaging was lifted last month.
The lawsuit was filed by law firm Edelson PC and brought by Wilford Raney, a resident of Texas, seeking to represent two classes: U.S. Twitter users who have sent direct messages and U.S. Twitter users who have received direct messages. And it wants as much as $100 a day for each user whose privacy was violated.
"When you have a privacy policy and the company is not being clear or transparent about what they're doing, the reason is usually because economic gain is really their focus," said Jay Edelson, managing partner at the Chicago-based firm Edelson PC that is representing Mr. Raney.
In a USA Today report, University of Washington law professor Ryan Calo says the Twitter lawsuit will not succeed for two reasons: Either the judge will decide an algorithm changing links or scanning for keywords is no different than a spellcheck or other automated program that people don't object to or the plaintiffs will not be able to demonstrate harm that a court would remedy.
"What Twitter is doing is probably not legally actionable any more than Gmail scanning emails for advertising," Calo said.
A Twitter spokesperson said that the 'claims are meritless' and they are willing to face the charges.
